Not only that, but the arsenal also began to produce various types of artillery shells. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Since there were too many artillery pieces in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, naturally, there were many types of artillery captured by the captives, and the calibers were different. Feng Yunshan called Zeng Yuheng of the Ministry of Public Works and asked him to determine the size of the most numerous types of artillery, and then formulate a standard for the size of artillery shells to standardize and unify the size of shells.

Soon, Zeng Yuheng brought a report that their Public Works Department had already investigated and calculated five standard size shell types according to the top five artillery sizes in terms of the number of statistics.

"Holy King, after statistics, the Ministry of Public Works has decided that the caliber of shells in the Holy Kingdom is divided into six types. The largest shell has a diameter of 165 mm, corresponding to a giant coastal gun of the 5,000 to 8,000 jin class, as well as 300 32-pounder drop-back smoothbore guns newly purchased from Prussia, which are also of this caliber; followed by heavy shells of 152 mm, corresponding to the heavy artillery of the 3,000-pound level, that is, the 24-pounder gun that foreigners say; Medium shells 118 mm and 106 mm, corresponding to the 12-pounder and 8-pounder guns spoken of by foreigners; Light shells, that is, 4-pounder guns corresponding to foreigners, with a muzzle of 83 mm, and 3-pounder guns, with a caliber of 60 mm. Zeng Yuheng reported.

As a member of the Zeng family, the family that was first pulled into the God Worship Sect by Feng Yunshan, Zeng Yuheng knew that he and Zeng Guanlan were both cronies of the Holy King Feng Yunshan, so he was naturally willing to serve the Holy King to the death.

When Feng Yunshan heard Zeng Yuheng's report, regardless of whether the size was reasonable or not, he was still very satisfied that their Public Works Department could use the length standard size they had implemented so quickly!

He nodded and said, "Yuheng, your Public Works Department has also put a lot of thought into it. However, six specifications are still a lot. The fortified shore defense artillery was unified with 165 mm shells. The naval guns were unified with 152 mm and 106 mm shells. For field artillery, 106 mm and 83 mm shells were used; Siege guns, like naval guns, used both 152 mm and 106 mm shells. In this way, a total of four shell sizes are available, which facilitates the unification of production and use. ”

Zeng Yuheng's face was embarrassed, and he said: "Holy King, only choosing these 4 calibers means that there are many artillery pieces in the captive army that have no shells available. ”

Feng Yunshan nodded, gritted his teeth and said: "If you can't use it, you can't use it, all the artillery pieces that are not the specifications of these 4 will be transported back to the First Arsenal and re-casted into these four caliber guns." Taking advantage of the fact that there are not many artillery pieces now, the losses are not very large, and the more it is dragged to the back, the more difficult it will be to change the caliber. ”

Zeng Yuheng saw that Feng Yunshan was so resolute, and nodded hurriedly, secretly admiring Feng Yunshan's courage in his heart.

Unifying the caliber of artillery naturally has many advantages, but it undoubtedly takes a lot of courage to standardize artillery when the number of artillery is not sufficient.

Feng Yunshan knew that there had not been much war recently, and the 300 32-pounder retractable smoothbore guns newly purchased from Prussia could be used as both city defense and coastal artillery, and it was enough for defense.

Not long after Zeng Yuheng left, Liu Shengbang came to report that Zuo Zongtang and Su Sanniang and others rushed back from Changsha with a small number of personal guards and arrived in Guangzhou. At the same time, several prisoners captured in Changsha were also escorted.

Hearing that Zuo Zongtang, Su Sanniang and other meritorious soldiers had returned to Guangzhou, Feng Yunshan hurriedly said that he wanted to summon everyone.

Soon, under the leadership of the palace guards, Zuo Zongtang and dozens of others came to the Holy King's Palace.

"Ji Gao, hard work all the way! For this king to capture Changsha, make a great contribution! Seeing Zuo Zongtang, Feng Yunshan stepped forward to greet him with a smile.

"Thanks to the Holy King Hongfu, the soldiers have used their lives to finally live up to their mission!" Zuo Zongtang replied respectfully.

Feng Yunshan turned his head and saw a heroic figure behind Zuo Zongtang, who was it if it wasn't Su Sanniang?

"Sanniang has worked hard!" Looking at Su Sanniang's flushed face, Feng Yunshan's heart moved, and the ghost envoy continued: "Later in the evening, this king will hold a banquet to entertain you!" ”

Su Sanniang's face turned even redder, bowed her head, and did not answer.

Zuo Zongtang said on the side: "Holy King, don't be busy entertaining first. This time, he brought back a few people from Changsha, including Zuo's fellow villagers and friends, and after persuasion all the way, fortunately, four people were willing to return to the Holy Kingdom and serve the Holy King. ”

As he spoke, he motioned to the guards to bring four people dressed in long braids to Feng Yunshan.

"The Holy King is above, and the sinners Guo Songtao, Guo Kuntao, Wang Minyun, and Cheng Hengsheng will meet you!" The four of them saluted in unison.

"Oh, all the talents, please!" When Feng Yunshan heard this, even Guo Songtao and Wang Minyun were willing to surrender, and couldn't help but be overjoyed, and helped everyone up with a smile on his face, and said with a smile: "This king has been looking forward to being virtuous for a long time!" Finally, you're here. ”

Seeing that Feng Yunshan's posture was so sufficient, the Guo brothers were okay, Wang Minyun was already smiling, and said: "Thank you for the favor of the Holy King, and the Hongyun is willing to follow the Holy King and follow the work of dogs and horses!" ”

Cheng Hengsheng also followed: "Cheng Mou will not hesitate to dedicate himself to the Holy King, and he is willing to serve the work of dogs and horses!" ”

When Feng Yunshan heard this, his smile became even bigger, and he said, "Okay, good!" With all the talents, why should this king worry about not succeeding in big things? ”

Feng Yunshan turned his head to look at Guo Songtao, who he valued the most, but saw that he was in his thirties and had a handsome face, if he didn't keep a long braid, he would still be a handsome guy in the eyes of future generations.

Guo Songtao was not as able to pull down his face as Wang Minyun and Cheng Hengsheng, and he arched his hand towards Feng Yunshan with some embarrassment.

For Guo Songtao, Feng Yunshan was a little curious, what method did Zuo Zongtang think of to make Guo Songtao, who was originally reluctant to surrender, willing to surrender.

However, Guo Songtao has an upright personality, and in later history, he dared to denounce the scholar doctor for "being the only one who is arrogant, and he takes the righteousness of Yidi as righteousness, and ignores the people's father; He called on the people of the country to abandon the traditional "distinction between Yixia and Xia," rationally analyze Western affairs, put down the frame of "the heavenly kingdom" and learn from the West, establish a new world consciousness, and take the modern nationalist road of making the country rich and strengthening the people.

Therefore, for this diplomat with modern thoughts, Feng Yunshan is ready to cultivate him in this aspect, first of all, to send him abroad to see the outside world.

As for Wang Minyun and Cheng Hengsheng, Feng Yunshan wanted to use them as personal staff members to help on the side.

After Guo Songtao and the others retreated, Feng Yunshan and Zuo Zongtang said: "Ji Gao, how did you persuade Guo Songtao to return to obedience?" ”

Zuo Zongtang said with a smile: "Without him, use the people in his hometown to move it!" Song Tao was the most concerned about the people, and Zuo just told him about the revised version of the Holy King's love for the people, "The System of the Holy Country's Fields and Mu", and he no longer insisted on following Zeng Guofan and the Manchu Dynasty. In addition, Zuo promised not to deal with the squires of Xiangyin, treat the squires and ordinary people equally, and do not confiscate their homes, so Guo Songtao agreed to surrender. ”

Feng Yunshan smiled, but he guessed in his heart how Zuo Zongtang threatened Guo Songtao, nothing more than using himself as an excuse, using the Guo family's relatives, friends, and children as bargaining chips, half-coercing and half-persuading to recruit Guo Songtao's brothers. There must be other reasons for this, though.

"Holy King, there are still a few people, Zhu Sunyi, the magistrate of Xiangxiang, Xu Youren, the political envoy of Hunan, and Tao Enpei, the envoy of Hunan, are all unwilling to surrender, and Zuo has no choice but to take them to Guangzhou City and hand them over to the Holy King for ruling."

"Hold it up first, and then take care of it when the king has time." Feng Yunshan had no impression of these Manchu officials.

For these people, if they can be used for their own use, they can be used for their own use, and they can be used as a daughter to buy horse bones, but it is really not good, and Feng Yunshan doesn't care. (To be continued.) )