Not long after Xie Hongyi left Xu Guangqi's room, Sun Yuanhua hurried in again. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Sun Yuanhua put a letter on the desk in front of Xu Guangqi and said, "Sir, the letter from the house is from the south. ”

Xu Guangqi was stunned for a moment, then quickly turned on as if he thought of something, leaned in front of the lamp, and looked at his hands and couldn't help shaking slightly. He read the letter twice before calming down, and said to Sun Yuanhua, "Chuyang, you have to go back to Beijing." ”

"What does the letter say, sir?" Sun Yuanhua paused, and then asked excitedly, "But Mr. Li, they are done?" ”

Xu Guangqi stroked his beard, nodded and smiled, "Brother Zhong Jian and Zhenzhi donated money to purchase four Shenwei cannons have been shipped from Guangzhou, not only that, Zheng Shiliang, the official of Guangzhou Prefecture, has also salvaged thirty-six British shipwreck cannons from the bottom of the Yangjiang River. ”

Then, Xu Guangqi handed the letter to Sun Yuanhua, who looked incredulous, "Look at it yourself." ”

The Zhong Jian in Xu Guangqi's mouth is Yang Tingyun, and Zhenzhi is Li Zhizao, both of whom are proficient in Taixi's learning and have been baptized into the Protestant.

Since Xu Guangqi trained in Tongzhou, he believed that "the one who defeats the enemy has only one weapon of Shenwei cannon", so he revised a book to Li Zhizao, the envoy of Gaoyouzhi, and asked him to try to go to Macao to buy artillery. The letter was written by Li Zhizao, and it took thousands of miles to reach Xu Guangqi's hands.

Li Zhizao consulted with Yang Tingyun, the deputy envoy of Huguang, and knew that it was unrealistic to ask the imperial court to allocate silver, so he decided to donate funds to the two of them, and sent Zhang Tao and Sun Xueshi to Australia. Due to Shen's letter to expel the missionaries, the ban in Macao was very strict at this time, and the two arrived in Xiangshanao (Macao) in Guangdong with the help of Wu Zhongwei, the envoy of Guangdong, and stayed at St. Paul's College.

With the help of the Jesuit Jean Rodtrgues, the purchase process went smoothly, and finally four Hongyi cannons were purchased at a price of 1,000 taels of silver each, all of which were made by the local Budgarao cannon foundry in Macau (in 1557, the Portuguese cannon casting expert Pedro Bocarro chose a location at the end of the village of Zhuzamu in the foothills of the Guia Mountains). Zhang and Sun hired four gunsmiths at their own expense to prepare to go north.

When the guns arrived in Guangzhou, it was early October, and the news of Zhu Youxiao's ascension to the pole had not yet arrived, and because Zheng Shiliang salvaged the sunken gunboat, the whole city was under martial law, so the four guns, the general secretary, and the companions, a total of 10 people, were sent back to Macao.

The shipwreck belonged to the British East India Company, founded in 1600, and the reason for this year (Wanli 48, 1620) began in May.

As early as May, Britain and the Netherlands formed a combined fleet of 20 ships to blockade the Dongfan (Taiwan) Strait from bases in Batavia in Java (Jakarta, Indonesia) and Hirado (north of Nagasaki) in Japan to intercept smuggling ships passing through Spain, Portugal, and the Ming Dynasty.

By June (6.30-7.28 AD), six Portuguese ships led by Jerónimo Carvalho were on their way to trade with Japan, and the brig São Bartoloméu, commanded by Jorgeda Silva, was attacked in the Taiwan Strait by the British armed merchant ship Unicorn.

The Portuguese merchant ships escaped the British attack but did not escape the hurricane, and both the ship and cargo sank, but the crew was lucky enough to return to Macao safely via the mainland.

The British pursued the 'Unicorn' was not so lucky, and was hit by a hurricane and sank in Haikou, Yangjiang County, Guangdong. (The exact date of the wreck is unknown, but it should be before June 22.) ）

When Xu Honggang, the governor of Liangguang, heard the news, he ordered Zhaoqing and Gaozhou to 'inspect the coastal defense and various officials', but they all replied that 'the sea is vast and the shipwreck is nowhere to be found'. When Xu Honggang heard this, he was furious, so he ignored the persuasion of many parties, and sent Zheng Shiliang, the governor of eastern Guangdong, the commander of Yangjiang County and the governor of Zhaoqing Prefecture and the governor of coastal defense, to go to the starry night, accompanied by General Wang Yangde, garrison Cai Yishen, and the officers and soldiers of the department.

After everyone arrived, before the British crew left, Zheng Shiliang ordered the soldiers to separate the spears in the village and secretly visit the shipwreck. Later, from the survivor Mrs. Frobisher and her maid Judith and other sources, they learned that there was a big gun (that is, the Hongyi cannon, at first because the Dutch were red-haired, called the cannon Hongyi, and later evolved into a general name for Western artillery), so they built an eagle and donated their own money to hire a craftsman to design a winch for salvage.

After three months of salvage, in addition to the small and medium-sized guns, a total of 36 Hongyi cannons, Western cloth, Narong, pepper, porcelain and so on were obtained, and then the Western cloth was handed over to the Guangzhou treasury, with a total price of 2,000 taels.

When the salvage was completed, Zhang Tao and others were buying artillery and heading north, and when the British and Dutch heard the news, they sent more than 20 ships, each carrying hundreds of people, approaching Yangjiang.

Zheng Shiliang, the governor of Zhaoqing Prefecture's coastal defense, also ordered the nearby soldiers and ships to prepare their war equipment, and neatly ambushed the troops in dangerous places, and the coastal area entered a state of combat readiness in an instant.

Of course, in the end, the war did not start, thanks to the Hongyi cannon that had just been salvaged from the bottom of the sea.

…

The letter did not mention the above details, but only briefly mentioned the thirty-six Hongyi cannons, which made Sun Yuanhua, who had been obsessed with artillery, inexplicably excited, and after repeatedly confirming that it was correct, he said to Xu Guangqi, "Sir, it is really heaven to help the Ming, with this divine cannon, why worry about the injustice." ”

Xu Guangqi knew Sun Yuanhua's expertise, "Compared with Jiannu, China's long skills are in firearms, but firearms must borrow cars to face the enemy, and they must borrow Taiwan to defend the city. The position of a staff member, for the teacher to choose someone else......"

How could Sun Yuanhua not understand the meaning of his teacher's words, so he said, "The students are willing to go to Guangdong to transport artillery, but the students are only lifting people, and they are afraid that the ministers of the court and the central government will hinder them." ”

Xu Guangqi is old enough to seek the country, so he is naturally thoughtful, "It's okay, the old man will go and discuss this matter with Gonggong Liu, you go and select a hundred healthy soldiers first, and then enter Beijing at dawn." ”

"The students obeyed."

※※※

Qingdu is more than 300 miles away from Beijing, and when Sun Yuanhua returned to Beijing with more than 100 cavalry with Xu Guangqi, the day was already westward. If it weren't for Liu Kejing's internal officials accompanying him, Sun Yuanhua would not even have the qualifications to enter the Chengtian Gate, let alone the inner right gate to wait for the order.

When Zhu Youxiao, who was in the Yangxin Palace, received Wang Chengen's performance, he was propping his hands on the imperial case and Sun Chengzong and Huang Jiashan were studying the defense of Gyeonggi on the map.

Huang Jiashan pointed to the Great Wall north of the Beijing Division on the map, and said to Zhu Youxiao, "The total number of Jimen soldiers is more than 110,000. Such as the Xifeng mouth outside the plain four looks, can accommodate more than 10,000 horses, is the main road for Gongyi to enter and exit, but its people are only more than 700 people. Therefore, the minister thought that it was appropriate to increase the number of troops by 2,000 at Xifengkou and 1,000 at Gubeikou. ”

Sun Chengzong also postscripted, "Mountains and seas, Jizhou and heavy soldiers, when there are heavy generals, it is the fundamental place of the Beijing Division, and Shanhaiguan is the main road out of the customs. ”

Zhu Youxiao knew that at present, the North Great Wall of the Beijing Division is from the Dongshan Customs of the border city of the town, extending 2017 miles, and there are 1,206 enemy platforms built in the border places, if each has 50 troops, a total of more than 60,000, and a soldier per zhang of the side wall, totaling more than 120,000 stacks, more than 60,000 soldiers will be used, and more than 20,000 will be used for sentry posts and other items in the middle, and 140,000 standing soldiers will be needed alone. But in fact, the officers and soldiers of Jizhen near the Beijing Division include 24,000 in Changping Town, 31,000 in Miyun Town, 40,000 in Jizhou Town, and 25,000 in Yongping Town, with a total of only more than 120,000.

Zhu Youxiao thought that it seemed that Jiannu did make a detour to Tatar later, and the troops were divided into three routes from Longjing Pass, Hongshankou, and Da'ankou to the west of Xifengkou to enter the pass and arrive at Gyeonggi.

The purpose of Jizhen is to defend the Beijing Division, and the towns and Beijing camps under it are both mutually restrained and horns of each other, and the Beigukou and Xifengkou on the Great Wall are close to the mountains and rivers, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and have always been the place where soldiers must fight.

"Where do the soldiers come from?" Even though Zhu Youxiao knew that what they said made sense, he still had to start from reality, and then asked, "Transfer to the Beijing camp?" ”

Sun Chengzong inspected the Beijing camp after he was appointed as the minister of military aircraft, less than half of its soldiers could fight, and the Shenji battalion had already left the customs, knowing that if the troops were transferred from the Beijing camp again, the safety of the Beijing division would be in danger, so he took up the idea of Xu Guangqi's trained soldiers, and said, "The soldiers trained by Xu Guangqi are still in the pass, and the ministers please intercept 10,000 and send them to Xifengkou and other places, and the remaining 10,000 will stay in Shanhaiguan to make sure that everything is perfect." ”

"What does Huang Aiqing think?" Zhu Youxiao was noncommittal.

Huang Jiashan already had this intention, and said, "The minister thinks that this move is feasible, Liaodong has sent additional Shenji Battalion and Siwei Battalion to go, and the war in Liaodong can be expected." Jimen is the shoulder of the Beijing division, if the Jiannu take the Tatar as a guide, and cross the pass to invade, the Beijing division is in danger. ”

"In that case, let the military department act accordingly." Zhu Youxiao also did not want history to repeat itself, so he agreed to the proposal of increasing troops at Xifengkou and other passes.

Wang Chengen only listened but didn't say anything, and only reminded him after the discussion, "Long live Lord, Xu Guangqi sent his student Sun Yuanhua to wait outside for a long time, can I let him see him now?" ”

Zhu Youxiao stretched his waist and sat back on the throne before saying, "Xuan." ”

"The ministers are leaving."