On April 15, the third year of Chongde, Huang Taiji led Zhu Beile and Manchu and Han cronies out of Shengjing City to review the artillery exercises of the Wuzhen Chao Harbin Army, and Fan Yongdou, who had amassed a large amount of wealth for Huang Taiji, was also allowed to accompany him.

Since Tong Yang supervised the craftsmen who succeeded in building the first red-coated cannon five years ago, Huang Taiji rewarded the cannon craftsmen with granges and slaves to make these craftsmen more meticulous and energetic in forging cannons for themselves.

In the third year of Chongde, these Han craftsmen had made significant progress in their artillery-making skills, and the range of the cannons made by the lost wax method was almost no different from the 18-pounder British naval gun smuggled out of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the quality of the iron imported from the Ming Dynasty is obviously not good enough, in order to prevent the explosion, the thickness of the barrel wall of these imitation red-coated cannons is much thicker than the original, so the weight of each red-coated cannon is about two tons, and it is necessary to build a special road to pull more than a dozen pairs of bullocks, which is extremely inconvenient to move.

In addition to these incredidly powerful cannons, craftsmen also built light artillery such as the thousand-pound-sized Great General Cannon and the lighter Second General Cannon. However, in addition to the red-coated artillery, these portable artillery were really difficult to confront the field artillery of the Ming army. But it is enough to put on a posture in front of the Manchurian relatives.

The reason why Huang Taiji led Zhu Beile and the Manchu and Han ministers out of the city to inspect the Wuzhen Chaoha army at this time was also to unite the people's hearts and let the Qing Kingdom know that they did not have a sharp weapon against the Ming army's artillery.

In order to better show the power of these cannons, Huang Taiji also took great pains to let the Han army build a standard fortress of the Ming army, which was used as a target for artillery firing.

More than a dozen red-coated cannons were three miles away, and dozens of light artillery such as general cannons were placed one mile away, and after Huang Taiji's order, Tuna and Shi Tingzhu ordered these cannons to fire in order.

The Manchurian Baylor and the generals who watched the artillery exercise with binoculars suddenly smacked their tongues one by one. Someone said: "This red-clothed cannon is really powerful, as long as there are dozens of red-clothed cannons in hand, day and night in turn, what city in the Ming Kingdom can stop it?" Without the protection of the city, what do we have to fear in a field battle with the Ming army..."

Yue Tuo, the master of the Red Flag Banner who was standing beside Huang Taiji, couldn't help but ask him: "King Khan, how many statues have been cast in my country such as a red-clothed cannon?" ”

Seeing that the corner of the fortress in the telescope finally collapsed completely, Huang Taiji put down the telescope with satisfaction and replied to Yue Tuo: "37 red-clothed cannons have been cast, and there are about more than 100 other generals' cannons. However, it is not enough to have a cannon, the equipment must be fine, and the people who use the equipment must also be trained more, otherwise it will be difficult to exert the power of the cannon. Tuna and Shi Tingzhu's training for the Wuzhen Chao Kazakh Army in the past two years has been good. ”

Jierharang immediately complimented: "I have such a sharp weapon in my Qing Dynasty, how can the Ming Kingdom resist my Qing elite soldiers in the near future." The minister congratulates the Khan and congratulates the Great Qing Dynasty..."

Huang Taiji was obviously in a good mood today, and after listening to Jilharang's words, he also responded with a smile. So the other Baylors behind him also tried their best to praise the Khan King Yingming and other words, and for a while, the children of the Aixin Jueluo family seemed to be extremely harmonious, but there was a little less open and secret fighting.

It should be said that Huang Taiji's use of artillery exercises today to calm the hearts of the upper echelons of the Qing Dynasty has basically achieved his goal. Under the roar of nearly 100 cannons, the Manchurian nobles regained their confidence in Huang Taiji, and even the frustration caused by the attack on the northern border by the Sauron tribe last winter has faded a lot.

However, Huang Taiji did not lose himself in this praise, and the power of the Ming army's artillery in the field battle in the first battle of Yizhou really frightened many Eight Banner generals. Most of the elite of the Blue Banner actually surrendered without a fight, which has never happened since the founding of the Eight Banners.

Although there was also the impact of Mang Gurtai's suicide on these Blue Banner soldiers, the capture of thousands of Blue Flag soldiers still brought a great shock to the Eight Banner soldiers. In the past, these Eight Banners soldiers had a sense of superiority over the Ming army, but after this war, there were some subtle changes.

What worries Huang Taiji even more is that after passing the Battle of Yizhou, not only did the morale of the Ming army soar, but even the attitude of the domestic Han officials became a little ambiguous, and it seemed that they no longer believed that the Qing Dynasty could replace the Ming Dynasty and seize the world. Instead, he retreated to the second best thing, wanted to stick to Liaodong, and started a situation of Song-Liao confrontation.

Huang Taiji can see farther than these Han officials, if the Qing Dynasty loses confidence in the Ming Dynasty to replace it, then the hearts of the people in the country will soon be torn apart, and basically there will be no Song-Liao confrontation. Because the number of Manchus was too small, the Manchus were able to dominate the Mongols and Han people in the country with such a small population, so as to fight against the Ming Dynasty without falling behind. That's because the Mandate of Heaven Khan gave them the hope of being able to replace the Ming Dynasty, once this hope was lost, how could the Mongols and Han people continue to follow the Manchus and the Ming Dynasty to the death?

Therefore, even if the Qing Dynasty really can't replace the Ming Dynasty, the belief that this will replace the Ming Dynasty cannot be abandoned. But if he provoked a war with the Ming Kingdom as easily as in the past, Huang Taiji would not do that. In the past, the Jin could attack the Ming State at will, which was based on the invincible record of the Mandate of Heaven Khan against the Ming army. The Manchurians knew that the Ming army would only shrink into the city and would not cause any harm to themselves, but as long as they captured a few fortresses, they could bring themselves a lot of loot, and naturally no one would object to a war against the Ming Kingdom.

But today's Ming Dynasty is not the past, the Manchurians not only can't grab things, but also have to be prepared to be bitten by those Ming troops, this kind of war without harvest is fought a few more times, the Qing Dynasty itself is about to collapse, Huang Taiji will naturally not rashly launch the war of the Ming Dynasty.

He just wants to accumulate strength now, and then find an opportunity to give the Ming State a ruthless blow and re-defeat the morale of the Ming army, which can bring the morale of the people of the two countries back to the track of the past. However, to this day, he still has not been able to find such an opportunity. And those Manchu relatives and noble soldiers who defected to the Qing Dynasty became a big trouble for him.

As Dolgon said, there are not many Manchurians, and if the people's hearts are discouraged, how long can the Qing Dynasty last? Huang Taiji glanced at the Baylors around him and found that his familiar faces had disappeared a lot. Amin, Mang Gurtai, Du Du, Erli, Derge, these heroes of the Aixin Jueluo family, either died or ran away to the Ming Kingdom, which is indeed a big loss for *, these characters are not ordinary people to see.

The only thing that made him feel fortunate was that after Derge defected, he died of illness in Beijing not long after. This is undoubtedly a serious blow to the elite of the Zhenglan Banner he brought to the Ming Kingdom. And for the domestic Zhenglan Banner, the Ming Kingdom has also lost a very appealing leader. From this point of view, God still favors him.

After watching the artillery drills and receiving the praises of the allegiance of the ministers of Zhubeile and Manmeng, Huang Taiji finally returned to the city with a large group of men and horses when the sun was setting in the west.

Fan Yongdou, who was at the end of the team, chatted with several Han officials with a relaxed expression, and followed the team into the Huaiyuan Gate of Shengjing City. As soon as he entered the city, he saw his cronies at the bank standing on the side of the street waving to him, and his heart suddenly chuckled.

Fan Yongdou immediately said goodbye to the head of the team, and then turned his horse to the side of the road, he had just landed on the ground with the help of his relatives, and heard the cronies who hurriedly ran to the front and said to himself anxiously: "Something has happened to the shopkeeper..."

Fan Yongdou immediately interrupted him and said, "Shut up, public, what are you talking nonsense?" Calm down, the sky won't fall, find a quiet place to say. Just go to the teahouse in front of me, just so that I can also moisten my throat..."

Under Fan Yongdou's reprimand, the cronies who came to report the news finally swallowed back the words and followed him to the teahouse in front.

After letting the teahouse guy arrange a private room, Fan Yongdou broke away from others and asked the cronie to tell the matter slowly.

After listening to the news reported by his cronies, Fan Yongdou still calmly said to him: "You go back to the bank first, collect the notice sent by the Sihai Trading Company, don't let others see it, I will go to the Sihai Commercial Bank to negotiate with their big shopkeeper Wang Wenyuan, and it will be fine." ”

Seeing that Fan Yongdou was so calm, this crony did not doubt him, and he also agreed with a big heart and left.

Listening to the footsteps on the stairs outside the door gradually moving away, Fan Yongdou stood up, his cuffs were accidentally brought to the tea cup in front of him, and the tea flowed half of the table, but he couldn't take care of it, and hurriedly walked out of the private room and instructed the relatives outside the door to settle the bill, and then went downstairs and left alone.

The stronghold of Sihai Trading Company in Shengjing is also on Xishuncheng Street, which is not far from Huaiyuan Gate, known as Sihai Building, with shops on the first floor and offices on the second floor. As for the back of the Sihai Building, there is a two-entry courtyard, the first is the warehouse and the man's residence, and the second is the office and residence of several shopkeepers of the Sihai Commercial Bank.

Fan Yongdou was familiar with this place, so he didn't wait for anyone to greet him, so he drove straight into the backyard of Sihailou. The guy at the shop was about to stop him, but he was stopped by the steward on the counter, signaling that he didn't have to do much.

Fan Yongdou rushed to the main room of the second courtyard, which was the daily office of the big shopkeeper Wang Wenyuan. When Fan Yongdou rushed into the room, he was talking to several stewards of the firm, and after seeing Fan Yongdou break in, he was not annoyed, but said to several stewards: "Okay, this is the case, you will all be attentive when you go back, don't make any mistakes." ”

Several stewards also agreed to exit the room with interest, they also knew Fan Yongdou, the red man in front of the Khan King, although they didn't know what he was doing so angrily, but they didn't want to get involved in this right and wrong.

After hearing the footsteps of a few stewards walking away, Wang Wenyuan didn't get up, just stretched out his hand and said, "Shopkeeper Fan came to the trumpet in such a hurry, but what are your orders?" Why don't you sit down and rest first, and then I'll tell the guy to serve you a good cup of tea..."

Fan Yongdou glanced at him coldly, then walked to Wang Wenyuan and sat down opposite him, and said stiffly: "Tea is free, I have already drunk it just now." Shopkeeper Wang, you should also know my intention, you might as well say it directly, what do you mean? Could it be that your business doesn't want to open in Shengjing? ”