In later generations, ZJ's iron ore resources have been explored in more than 100 places, of which 22 have proven reserves, with a cumulative total of 98 million tons. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

The location of these iron mines is relatively concentrated in areas such as the area from the north of Zhuji County in Shaoxing Prefecture to Nirvana in Shaoxing, the area from Anyang to Tongshan in CA County of Yanzhou Prefecture, the area from Heping to Tuwangdong in CX County of Huzhou Prefecture, Xianlinbu in Yuhang County of Hangzhou Prefecture and Baoshan Chimu Mountain in Jingn County, Chuzhou Prefecture.

Huzhou and Shaoxing were still under the control of the Manchus for the time being. In contrast, Shaoxing was actually close to Chen Wen, especially Zhuji, Xinchang and Shengxian in the south, which were completely exposed to the Ming army. It's just that the sea trade is together, and a large amount of military salary is in the account, and Chen Wen plans to carry out a new round of army expansion before making plans, so as to prepare for the chain reaction after the big move north.

This time, Zhang Bang explored iron ore, and its target was the copper mountain iron ore in Yanzhou Prefecture, the gold and iron ore in the later SM County of Taizhou Prefecture, and the Baoshan and Baixi iron mines in the state capital, among which the copper mountain iron ore had begun to be discovered and mined in the Tang Dynasty, but at that time it was mainly copper smelting, not iron smelting, and the name of Tongshan also came from this.

In fact, these places are not rich mines, especially Baixi Iron Mine, but Chen Wen does not intend to use it as a pillar of development, but just a transition. After surviving this period, one Maanshan is enough, and you still need to think about others?

Of course, in normal heavy industry, coal and iron are not separated, but in the era in which Chen Wen lived, and the industrial level of the area occupied by the Ming army today, coal mines are not indispensable. It can even be said that military production should be eliminated as much as possible.

Chen Wen remembers that he had seen such a statement on the forum before, saying that the reason for the great decline in the quality of weapons in the Ming Dynasty was the widespread use of coal to make iron, and a variety of elements that were not conducive to the quality of weapons contained in coal seeped into the iron, resulting in the quality of the iron weapons produced being much lower than that of the RB swords of the same era.

Chen Wen also searched on the Internet and found that Britain in the same era was forced to cast a large number of iron cannons due to low copper production, but its price was much more expensive than that of iron cannons in other European countries. The reason for this problem is that the British strictly forbade the use of coal in the production of iron cannons, and instead used a large amount of charcoal, which even led to the extremely low forest cover of the British mainland for a long time due to the transition of deforestation.

Such a price, in exchange for the quality of British artillery and artillery, at that time dominated Europe, that is, the Ming court copied the Hongyi cannon was actually a British naval gun salvaged by the Dutch. And the other artillery power, France, is to be after the Napoleonic era, and even after the birth of "Miss Seventy-Five", which is already a very distant thing today.

The strict use of charcoal for ironmaking lasted in England until the eighteenth century, when coking coal was used for ironmaking, but only slightly. In the second half of the 19th century, the method of desulfurization and dephosphorization was finally achieved.

It is precisely because of this understanding that since the jurisdiction of military manufacturing has been transferred from civilian officials to his hands, the weapons of the ZJ Ming Army have begun to be completely made of charcoal, and while the cost has increased, the quality of weapons has also been greatly improved. Weapons damaged in battle, artillery bore and other phenomena will be much lower than the Qing army, which still uses coal to make iron.

During the Ming Dynasty, the level of steel smelting once led the world, but the Manchu Qing Dynasty was almost inaccurate for more than 200 years before it was overtaken by the rapidly developing European powers. Among them, such as the steel frying method and the iron furnace recorded in the "Tiangong Kaiwu", have now begun to be used in the military industry workshop of the ZJ Ming Army, and even Chen Wen once pondered sending someone to JX to invite the encyclopedic scientist Song Yingxing at the end of the Ming Dynasty, but the mountain is high and the road is far away, and the blockade of the Qing army has not been able to make the trip.

Chen Wen sent someone to carry out the iron ore matter, but this time he came over, in addition to the Zheng family's order, Chen Wen also planned to see what kind of progress the weapon he ordered to develop last time had arrived.

"That, Guogong, the lower official urged it a few days ago, and the basic principle has been figured out, that is, if you want to achieve the effect you said, there is still a problem that needs to be solved......"

After listening to Xu Yi's question, Chen Wen didn't know exactly how this was solved, so he had to let the R&D personnel of the Military Industry Department continue to experiment, and don't think about it for the time being.

"Well, Lu Mi Gong, we still have to continue production, and at the same time, I need your Military Industry Department to start putting the research and development task of the turtledove foot gun on the agenda."

The turtledove foot gun is the largest fire gun with the largest inner diameter in the Ming Dynasty, and its projectile mass can be as high as 68 grams, which is already an out-and-out heavy arquebus. The body of the turtledove foot gun is so heavy that it needs a bracket to launch effectively, and its range and effective killing are not comparable to the Lumi gun that Chen Wen is now equipped with, let alone a bird gun.

This time, the reason why he was able to think of this was actually because of Zheng Chenggong's blessing. Historically, after the Songjin War, the Ming court had intended to send Zheng Zhilong's sailors north to assist in the defense of Juehua Island, Zheng Zhilong was afraid of the Qing army like a tiger, and was reluctant to take FJ's sea trade profits, so he used the excuse that only GD could make the turtledove foot gun, and finally spent money to get through the relationship, but only transported a batch of weapons to Dengzhou.

The turtledove foot gun is recorded in the "Wu Bei Zhi", but Mao Yuanyi's book is very miscellaneous and not specialized, if it weren't for Zheng Zhilong's son who wants to buy Lu Mi gun, Chen Wen is afraid that he won't be able to remember the turtledove foot gun he had read in the novel before for a while.

"This shouldn't be too difficult, after the research and development is successful, hand over the report, I will study the proportion and quantity of mass production. It's that thing, you have to hurry. ”

Xu Yi likes the work of the Military Industry Department very much, especially watching the weapons and armor being built to equip the army, the joy is difficult for other departments to experience. It's just that this R&D task is not like normal production, and it is good that there are books to describe it, like the thing mentioned by Chen Wen, there are similarities, but there are also many technical problems. In addition, he had never been a scholar who was interested in studying these things before, so much so that when he heard Chen Wen bring up the old things again, Xu Yi really had a bitter gourd face.

Today, the ZJ Ming army has Nantang, Guard, Shentang, Yiwu, Dongyang, Pujiang, Lishui, Chun'an and Yushan, as well as the cavalry battalion named Iron Cavalry and the unnamed Mule Army, and the soldiers alone are nearly 20,000, and this does not count the local garrisons stationed in various prefectures and counties.

Such a scale, but in the period of heavy siege, in fact, the strength of the troops is only to temporarily ensure that the Qing army will suddenly attack, and there will be no excessive losses in the local area.

The advantage of the military merit system is that the army's combat is high, and unlike other Ming or Qing armies, they use the method of plundering the people, and if you want to obtain military merit, you have to fight hard. However, if the core occupation area of their own country is wreaked havoc by the enemy, then even the veterans will be affected to some extent, not to mention the new recruits who now account for a large proportion of the ZJ Ming army.

If you want to fight out, you have to continue to expand, but fortunately, even if the bulk trade has not yet ended, it has exceeded his expectations, so Chen Wen decided to start the expansion of the army in advance, even if the production plan of the new army weapons and equipment has been put on hold for the time being.

During these months, the boot camp provided several thousand recruits to supplement the garrisons in Yanzhou, Taizhou, and Wenzhou. In this way, the green battalions in Taizhou and Wenzhou can enter the recruit training camp for training. In addition, Chen Wen also planned to train two more battalions, as well as expand the two bureaus of the mule army into one mounted infantry battalion.

In this way, in March and April next year, Chen Wen will have thirteen battalions of soldiers with one mounted infantry battalion and one cavalry battalion, for a total of 30,000 troops!

With such a scale of troops, whether it is going north to recover Ningshao, or advancing west to fight a decisive battle with Hong Chengchou, if you concentrate most of your troops on the front line, it is enough to win the battle. Even if in JX and ZJ Hangzhou, it would be easy for the Manchus to concentrate forces that greatly exceeded this number.

This is not a light enemy, but since learning the fact that the Manchu court prevented the ZJ Green Battalion from organizing the Mandarin Duck Array, and thinking of the actions of the Qing Dynasty, Chen Wen clearly realized that although his opponent was extremely cunning and good at using the power of the Han people to suppress the Han people, he could not get rid of the fact that a small clan was a big country. In many cases, the importance of suppressing the combat effectiveness of the Green Battalion was no less important than the suppression of the anti-Qing movement.

This is the case for more than 200 years in the Qing Dynasty, otherwise China's fate would not have sunk after more than 200 years. However, if they are pushed to a certain extent, God knows what this cunning barbarian will toss, so Chen Wen intends to further accelerate the pace of army expansion and reconquest of lost territory, so as to reduce the possibility of this unknown breaking out.

Not long after Zheng Tai left Wenzhou, the sea ships and warships that Zheng family used for trading arrived in Wenzhou.

In terms of sea ships, almost all of them are either fortune ships or Guangzhou ships, which are all orthodox cargo ships on the southeast coast of this era. As for the warships of the Zheng family, after Chen Wen saw the drawings, according to his recollections, it seems that they are also the regular ships of the FJ Ming Army today - gunboats, bird ships, catch up ships and double-sailed ships.

This batch of ships Chen Wen immediately sent them to the ZJ coastal cruising sailors for use, and correspondingly, those sailors of the Qing army and the recruited sailors were also divided into military fields like the land division, which were led by the officers of the martial arts academy and the inland water division; Their families farmed on the shore and were under the management of the guard like Lu Shi's family.

After receiving the new warship, the ZJ coastal cruise fleet began intensive training. However, just as Li Ruixin said earlier that cavalry is not made by training, but by fighting, the officers of the naval division also expressed that they want to be like the inland water division, and it is meaningless to drive and train not far from the land, and the naval division should go to the stormy waves and fight with armed merchant ships and warships at sea, and only in this way can a real naval division be trained.

This truth, even if Chen Wen knows little about the modern navy or the navy of the Middle Ages, he can understand it.

It's just that letting a group of sailors and officers and soldiers who have not been receiving a long time go to face armed merchant ships and even warships has not been able to get his approval for the time being. In addition, it is also a big question whether the attack on an armed merchant ship will lead to a corruption of military discipline among the officers and men of the naval division. The sea is not as good as the road, and the military judges and prison officers are likely to be attacked by the sailors if they use it incorrectly, and they must study all the doorways in this clearly.

Because of this, Chen Wen also retreated to the second best place when the sailors went to sea for training, and asked them to clear the pirates along the coast of Taiwan and Wenzhou.

The twelfth day of the lunar month, the algorithm of the lunar calendar, is naturally not linked to the Xi'an incident, let alone the Double 12 promotion. However, for ZJ's coastal cruisers, this was their first day out to sea to clean up pirates.

Taizhou Bay is only a few dozen miles out of the sea, and a series of islands including Lighting Island, Yijiangshan Island, and Dachen Island are dotted along the coast of Taizhou.

The first sortie, but the details of the target had already been figured out - it was just a pirate with hundreds of men, several large and small ships, and a small cannon or two. However, even so, adhering to the principle that the training of troops should be strengthened by the success of a lion fighting a rabbit in a successful battle, the Taizhou detachment of the ZJ coastal patrol naval division still dispatched more than a dozen large and small warships.

The gunboats purchased from FJ were almost the same size as the large merchant ships of the Netherlands and Portugal and the bird ships that came with them, and even a small number of Zheng Chenggong's troops were converted from European merchant ships. This kind of warship can be equipped with a Hongyi cannon weighing three or four thousand catties in the bow, which is about 18 to 24 pounder guns, and there are more than 20 ordinary guns on both sides and more than 100 guns.

In comparison, the ship is slightly smaller, with two layers of artillery decks and gun emplacements on both sides, which also range from more than 20 guns. The double-sail bow ship is smaller than the one with a sling, but the structure is more or less the same.

With a fleet of this size, even the Qing army and sailors on the Ningbo side may not have the confidence to win, let alone those small pirates.

The process of the battle can only be described by the word crushing, and this is the Ming fleet to lure the enemy with a rush ship and several smaller double-sail ships, and only send a signal after receiving fire. Originally, the Ming army sailors were ready to jump into a decisive battle with the pirates after a round of shelling, but when the main force appeared, the pirates immediately lost their fighting spirit, because the distance was too close, only two pirate ships were able to escape, and the others were either directly sunk and burned, or captured by the Ming army.

After the battle, the Ming army dispatched sailors to land in small boats, and took the stockade on the target island, and the men, the elderly, the weak, the women and children were all taken away, along with the assets, livestock, grain, etc., and left a red pen on the wooden board to order them to go to the sea gate to reunite with their families. Before leaving, a torch was lit in the stockade, and the army set off to return, easily winning the first battle.

Throughout Layue, the ZJ coastal cruiser has been clearing pirates, and Chen Wen is even more busy in the yamen of Jinhua Mansion that has just changed its plaque to Xiuguo Mansion.

With the expansion of the army, the distribution of military fields, the large trade with the Zheng family, the establishment of yamen including the City Ship Division and the Salt Division, and the collection of autumn taxes, there are too many things to do.

On the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth lunar month, the last day of the seventh year of Yongli, some craftsmen, officials and soldiers in the subordinate departments had already begun to take vacations, while Chen Wen was in the large conference hall with the officials of the various departments of the Xiuguo Mansion and the main yamen under the governor of ZJ.

"In the past seven years of Yongli, I have recovered the remaining prefectures and counties of Yanzhou, Taizhou and Wenzhou, as well as Quzhou and Chuzhou, and expanded their power to Guangxin Prefecture in JX and XS County in Ningbo to achieve today's achievements, and the monarchs have made great contributions to the country. However, what I want to tell you today is that next year, that is, the eighth year of Yongli, will be the year when my zj king will rise up to recover more lost territory, and it will also be the year when the rule of the Tartars in these four southeastern provinces will completely collapse. ”

"Gentlemen, work hard!" (To be continued.) )