In just one month, Erhai, Chuxiong and Xinxing (now Yuxi) in Yunnan Province have built three firearms production bases similar to the Nule Peak camp at lightning speed - oh no, now it should be called Sun Dianying brand cement production base, guided by the skilled technicians trained by the Nule Peak camp, while desperately coking iron and smelting cement and glass, while playing with distillation of sulfuric acid to refine nitric acid, The production process is simple and relatively safe nitrocellulose, as well as nitroglycerin and Miyoshi brand safety explosives, which are not as complex as there but are extremely dangerous, in addition to the production of primitive missiles according to strict specifications, the casting of Hongyi cannons, and the endless supply of war resources from the Pingxi Wangfu.

Of course, while guarding Yungui to guard against Tusi in China and Annan in Burma abroad, in order to provide enough troops to ensure the safety of these three new firearms battalions, in addition to these three battalions, Wu Sangui's army also had to provide manpower and force protection for the two newly established cold weapon forging workshops, so it was definitely not enough to rely on the 17,000 troops on the surface of Pingxi Wangfu.

But fortunately, our Pingxi prince has always been not very honest in this regard, almost none of the soldiers who were eliminated in the seventeenth year of Shunzhi and the fourth year of Mazi left Yunnan, all of them were rewarded for self-cultivation and self-cultivation, Wu Sangui's largest source of reserve forces, and these veterans have rich experience, as long as they are pulled back and retrained a little, they will immediately be the main force under Wu Sangui.

In addition to the veterans who were previously dismantled, Wu Sangui's other important source of reserve strength is the children of the Pingxi Palace, since Wu Sangui Shunzhi was stationed in the southwest in the eighth year, after 17 years of population reproduction, the population of the children of the soldiers of the Pingxi Wangfu has reached hundreds of thousands, these young generation of the Pingxi Wangfu have been fighting with Wu Sangui's army in the south and the north since they were born, and they have long been familiar with military affairs, and they are the best and most reliable reserve soldiers, as long as they are trained a little, You can become a strong army in no time. Now that Wu Sangui is determined to support the army to protect himself, these second- and third-generation children of the Pingxi Royal Mansion will naturally have a place to use.

In addition, what is little known is that Wu Sangui also has a supernumerary army with no formal establishment but super combat effectiveness, that is, it is composed of ethnic minority soldiers in Yunnan and Guizhou - the Qiangbing Army! This army has more than 5,000 people as the core, and can be urgently expanded several times in wartime, and is good at using giant swords and earth cannons as weapons, and likes to wrap its head in white cloth, claiming that it is as brave as flying and invincible! In history, he followed Wu Sangui from Yunnan to Guizhou to the Hunan battlefield and Pingliang in Gansu, and made great contributions to Wu Sangui! Under the circumstance of actively strengthening armaments, Wu Sangui naturally had to put some effort into this strong army in order to be of great use.

(Note: The soldiers are by no means fictional, and the historical materials clearly record the following: "Qing Mazu Records", "Ming Ji Barnyard History Compilation", "Continuation of Yunnan Tongzhi" and "Korean Li Dynasty Records. Suzong. The sound is the same as the fruit. ）

So, under the instigation and guidance of Lu Fatzi, who likes bad tastes, Wu Sangui extracted the long-reserved grassroots generals from the main army, and used them as the backbone to lead the new with the old, and set up a large number of semi-militarized organizations such as the urban management team, security team, caravan protection team, demolition team and public security patrol team of Pingxi Palace, which expanded the army by nearly 10,000 people in disguise, quickly filled the vacancies in the troops urgently needed by Wu Sangui's army, and took the opportunity to train strictly, so that it could recruit and fight, and win the battle!

After doubling the size of the camp again, the camp not only has to provide technical and personnel support for the three newly built firearms battalions, but also has to continuously develop and improve firearms production technology. In particular, the safety production technology of nitroglycerin made Lu Fatzi feel a lot of gray hair, and finally after more than a dozen production explosions, Lu Fatzi remembered the characteristics that copper and sulfuric acid are not easy to react, and racked his brains to figure out a safer production method.

Lu Fatzi's new method is to put the copper container behind the flowing river water, use the flowing water to cool the container to produce nitroglycerin, and pour nitroglycerin into the river to avoid explosion when in case of danger, which greatly reduces the risk factor of nitroglycerin production. However, considering the production cost, technical difficulty, process complexity and risk factor, after high-level consultation in Pingxi Palace, the plan to use gunpowder as the main use of Sanhao brand safety explosives was finally abandoned, and it was replaced by Sanhao brand nitrocellulose with lower cost and easy production, and Sanhao brand explosives were relegated to the second place, and it was decided to be mainly used for mountain blasting, as well as for the use of attacking fortifications on the battlefield - that is, the famous tunnel blasting city wall tactics. This tactic had been used by Kong Youde as early as the Songjin battlefield in the late Ming Dynasty, and Wu Sangui's army was very familiar with it.

The four major firearms factories were producing new gunpowder at full capacity at the same time, and the problem of raw materials once again came to the fore, and instead of the source of saltpeter, it was re-placed in front of Pingxi Wangfu and Lu Fatzi. The sulfuric acid raw material necessary for the production of new gunpowder is more than alum in Yunnan, and the green alum mined by the way when copper mining in a few copper mines is enough to meet the needs of Pingxi Wangfu, but the saltpeter used in the production of nitric acid has become a bottleneck. Although the unlucky eggs of Pingxi Wangfu go into the toilet every day to drill the stables to dig up old soil to boil nitrate, Lu Fatzi also invented the method of producing nitrate from dung cultivation of nitric acid bacteria, and purchased saltpeter from other provinces in the north at a high price, the supply of saltpeter has never been able to fully supply the production needs, and the inventory has been repeatedly urgent.

The road is endless, just when the Pingxi Wangfu and Lu Fatzi were almost desperate to reduce the scale of firearm production, an exciting good news suddenly came - Niu Tianshen, the prefect of Guizhou Dading, the Western Election Official, didn't know what shit luck he had, because he heard that Pingxi Wangfu was in urgent need of saltpeter, so he sent someone to check whether there was a nitrate mine in his territory to see if he could meet his luck to please Wu Sangui. As early as the first year of Kang Mazi, Tusi Angu of Shuicheng Hall had already discovered a saltpeter vein in a huge natural cave near the Ale River in Shuicheng! And it has been secretly mined here for a long time, and the maximum amount of pure nitrate produced is more than 600 catties! (The mine cave is now known as the Big Nitrate Cave, located in Xiaotun Village, Yuezhao Township, Zhongshan District, Liupanshui City, and was found in the Kang Mazi period.) ）

The result was very natural, after Niu Tianshen ran to Wu Sangui to report, the ecstatic Wu Sangui immediately sent a large army into Shuicheng, forcibly bought this mine from Angu Tusi at a price of 3,000 taels of silver, invested huge manpower and material resources, and mined and produced on a large scale, which finally barely guaranteed the saltpeter demand for the four major firearms. At the same time, at the request of Wu Sangui, Wu Sangui's hardcore lackeys Sichuan general Wang Pingfan and Guangxi veteran Ma Xiong finally found saltpeter veins in the ancient Buddha Cave of Jinfoshan in Yucheng and Dashiwei in Leye in Guangxi, and under the full production, Pingxi Wangfu finally completely solved the problem of saltpeter source.

With the help of Wu Yingqi, although the merchants under the Pingxi Wangfu gave Lu Fatzi more than 1,500 catties of Guta tree natural gum juice, but because there is no ammonia preservation technology in this era, these Guta collagen juice has deteriorated a little, and it must be boiled and concentrated before it can be used.

In view of the scarcity and preciousness of the material, Lu Fatzi could only take it out little by little, like squeezing toothpaste, to test and manufacture, and study the vulcanization process of rubber - because Lu Fatzi only knew that natural rubber was made of sulfur and alkaline lead carbonate sulfur, sulfur Lu Fatzi had it, and Fatman Lu had alkaline lead carbonate - this thing was actually the lead powder used by ancient Chinese women to make makeup, and Yunnan and Guizhou also happened to be rich in this thing. But the specific proportion of materials, Lu Fatzi has long forgotten it cleanly, so there is no way, Lu Fatzi can only take the craftsmen little by little to use the elimination method to experiment and research, by constantly changing the formula to find the best formula, its efficiency and speed are slow, can be imagined.

When this optimal ratio was finally found by Lu Fatzi, the time had come to the middle of July in the second half of the ninth year of Kang Mazi, Wu Sangui also secretly came to the Nule Peak camp for the second time in half a year, and personally inspected the construction and production of the Nule Peak camp.

In view of the hard work of Lu Fatzi and Wu Guogui, the result of the inspection was of course that Wu Sangui was very satisfied - in fact, just the world's first cement road from the Nule Peak camp to the camp of Sanchakou Fort Right Town was enough to open the eyes of Wu Sangui and his lackeys, if it were not for the lack of cement production capacity, Wu Sangui would still want to build such a road under Wuhua Mountain, so that it would go straight to Qujing, and even to Guiyang. But there is no absolute perfection in this world, for example, the fierce general Ma Baoma under the command of Wu Sangui is more dissatisfied, and when he returned to the Chinese army camp after the inspection, he immediately yelled at Lu Fatzi.

"Yifeng, what about the musket you promised me? What about muskets? Ma Bao took the flintlock pistol that Lu Fat Man gave him and shouted, "Didn't you say that you would give me a few muskets that can shoot farther and more accurately?" Why does this musket just not need an open flame to ignite, and the range of the target is still exactly the same as the original. ”

"Ma Junmen, you can spare me." Lu Fatzi pleaded: "I've been busy with artillery, rockets, cement, explosives and airships all this time, so I still have time to study muskets?" As for this flintlock pistol, I told the craftsmen the principle, and they figured it out. ”

"Ma Bao, don't be embarrassed." Wu Sangui also said: "Haven't you seen how much Yifeng has lost weight in the past six months? The city of Kunming can't be built in a day, you have to give him time. ”

"Lord Wang, I'm not embarrassing him." Ma Bao said unconvinced: "I'm worried about the prince, you see that Yifeng has been in Qujing Dangzhi County for more than two and a half years, and the three-year term will expire in less than half a year. ”

People are reckless and reckless, after Ma Bao's unintentional words came out, Wu Sangui, Lu Fatzi and others were all in the same place at first, and then they all suddenly remembered a major event - at the end of this year, when Lu Fatzi's three-year term expires, if Xiao Mazi or Gan Wenkun transfers Lu Fatzi from Qujing, many things in the Nule Peak camp will be wasted! Thinking of this, Wu Sangui hurriedly asked Lu Fatzi: "Yifeng, what were your achievements in the first two years of the official evaluation?" ”

"Back to the prince, the year before last was excellent, and there were two merits." Fat Lu said with a wry smile: "Last year was also excellent, and there were three merits. Listening to Lin Zhongcheng and Gan Wenkun, my performance appraisal has been the first in Yunnan and Guizhou for two consecutive years, and this year is probably no exception. ”

"So, aren't you going to be promoted?" Wu Sangui was a little dumbfounded - now that there are no vacancies in the prefect and Tongzhi of Qujing Mansion, once Lu Fatzi is promoted, he will definitely be transferred out of Qujing.

"Lord Wang, can you find a way to let Qujing Prefect Zhang Gaomo get out of the way, and let Lord Lu take over as Qujing Prefect on the spot?" Yang Wu, the chief soldier of Houzhen, proposed.

"If the prince does this, then Yifeng will definitely be transferred out of Qujing." Liu Xuanchu stood up and said solemnly: "At present, we are making every effort to expand our armaments, and we must have already attracted the attention of the imperial court and Gan Wenkun, and there are many people in the imperial court who have always been hostile and suspicious of Yifeng, in this case, if the prince comes forward to leave Yifeng in Qujing, then it is equivalent to telling the imperial court that our Pingxi Wangfu and Nule Peak cannot leave Yifeng, and the imperial court will transfer Yifeng away by any means!" ”

"What then?" Ma Bao scratched his head, and suddenly his eyes lit up again and said, "Why don't you let Yifeng go to Chuxiong to be the prefect?" I am there to protect a peak, and I promise that no one will dare to touch him. ”

"What if the imperial court insists on transferring Yifeng out of Yunnan or even out of Yungui?" Liu Xuanchu asked rhetorically, and said categorically: "Right now, the prince and we must not come forward and intervene in the transfer and promotion of Yifeng, that will only be self-defeating, and make the court make up its mind to transfer Yifeng away!" Now the only person who can help Yifeng is only one! ”

"Gan Wenkun!" Hu Guozhu, Fang Guangchen and Wang Shirong, the three dog-headed military advisors, added Liu Xuanchu in unison.

"That's right, now I can only count on Gan Wenkun." Liu Xuanchu nodded and said: "Only if Yifeng continues to be trusted and reused by Gan Wenkun, and makes Gan Wenkun feel that Qujing will never leave Yifeng to guard, he will do his best to keep Yifeng in Qujing, and he will also make every effort to persuade the court and the emperor to let Yifeng continue to stay in Qujing." ”

"Yifeng, how have you been secretly in contact with Gan Wenkun recently?" Wu Sangui turned to Fat Lu and asked, "Did he have any doubts about you?" ”

"There should be no doubts." Fat Lu scratched his head and said: "But I can feel that he is already a little dissatisfied with the progress of my secret investigation of the Nule Peak camp, and several letters have implied reproach, thinking that I occupy the pit and do not excrete, and I have not yet shown him the real evidence of your secret cannon casting, Lord Wang." Moreover, the army of our right town also discovered that he had secretly sent men to infiltrate Qujing several times, but he did not notify me in advance on these occasions, and the people sent did not contact me. ”

"He's probably on your side, too." Hu Guozhu interjected: "At the very least, he no longer plans to rely on your single line to monitor the Nule Peak camp, and plans to arrange a group of people to monitor the Nule Peak camp with you, and by the way, he will use this group of people to secretly monitor you." ”

"In this way, if the court is determined to transfer you out of Yungui, Gan Wenkun is likely to ignore it." Liu Xuanchu twisted the mouse's beard, and also showed a worried look.

"Hehe, Lord Lu was transferred, but it may not be a good thing." Wang Shirong suddenly laughed and said, "At the very least, with Lord Lu's incorruptible front and your ability to accumulate wealth and make money, it is a blessing for the local people to go there." ”

"Liangchen, at this time, don't joke." Fang Guangchen frowned and scolded. Hu Guozhu, Liu Xuanchu and the others also had displeasure on their faces, but Wang Shirong was not in a hurry, and said with a smile: "If you don't joke, don't joke, let's get down to business, doesn't he Gan Wenkun want Lord Lu to get evidence of our secret casting of artillery?" Then why don't you let Master Lu give it to him? Casually, we can let the imperial court know what the artillery we secretly cast looks like, is it worth their worry, isn't it also a good thing to kill two birds with one stone? ”

"Wonderful." Liu Xuanchu reacted, slapped his thigh and said, "Why didn't I think of this trick?" Let Yifeng provide information to Gan Wenkun and let him rob one or two artillery muskets that we secretly forged, won't Gan Wenkun completely believe Yifeng? By the way, wouldn't it be good to let the court know that the artillery and muskets we secretly forged were good? ”

"What if Gan Wenkun takes the opportunity to forcibly search the Nule Peak camp?" Wu Guogui said worriedly.

"It's easy." Hu Guozhu said lightly: "As long as Gan Wenkun can't prove that the artillery is from the Nule Peak camp, not to mention that this matter is that we took the initiative to let Gan Wenkun get the evidence, we just need to prepare everything in advance, he insists on searching or letting him search, and by the way, it can also let the imperial court eliminate some of the worries caused by our vigorous armament." ”

"Yes, it's time to let the court know what firearms we're producing." Fang Guangchen echoed: "Instead of letting the thief worry about it, it is better to let the thief see clearly that we have nothing worth stealing." Lord, what do you think? ”

"Since you all think that the imperial court should grasp some of our situation, then you can discuss it." Wu Sangui nodded in agreement, patted Lu Fatzi on the shoulder again, and said: "Yifeng, don't worry too much, if the court and the emperor insist on transferring you away, if you really can't help it, you will resign, if you resign, you will be a free man, and you can guarantee that the power in your hands will only be greater than the original, not smaller than the original." ”

"Thank you, you understand." Fat Lu respectfully agreed, but sighed in his heart, "Damn, you think I didn't think of this method?" I am indeed a free man after resigning, but what should I do with my Qujing Green Battalion? That's the capital for me to achieve the hegemony of the ambition, I resigned, won't Qujing Green Camp be cheaper for others? ”

……………………

After a series of intensive and careful preparations, on the afternoon of the third day of the eighth month of the ninth year of Kang Mazi in the Great Qing Dynasty, Lu Yifeng of Jingzhi County in Qujing County, Daqing Dynasty, suddenly flew a pigeon and secretly reported to Gan Wenkun, the governor of Yungui and Guizhou in the Great Qing Dynasty, claiming that he had found that in the camp of Wu Sanguijun Nule Peak in Pingxi Palace, two mysterious carriages covered with sackcloth were suddenly transported, each carriage was pulled by four divine horses, and under the protection of a large number of Wu Sangui army elites, it was secretly transported into the right town camp of Wu Sangui's army at night.

In the same evening, Gan Wenkun, the governor of Yungui in the Qing Dynasty, personally led 500 light horsemen from Guiyang, set off from Guiyang overnight, and rushed to Qujing in the starry night. At the same time, there were two carrier pigeons carrying news, the first carrier pigeon was given to Lu Yifeng of Jingzhi County, Quqing County, and the second carrier pigeon was given to Li Bao, the chief of the green camp directly under the governor of Yungui in the Great Qing Dynasty, and the content was exactly the same - keep an eye on these two mysterious carriages!

On the morning of the second day, at three o'clock in the morning of the fourth day of the eighth month of the ninth year of Kang Mazi in the Qing Dynasty, the fast horse of the Yamen of the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou caught up with the team of the Governor Gan Wenkun and presented the second report of Lu Yifeng in Qujing Zhixian County to Gan Wenkun in one night! The report said: About three hours after the two mysterious carriages entered the camp of the right town, four loud noises were heard in the camp of the right town of Wu Sangui's army, which was suspected to be the sound of artillery!

An hour later, the second fast horse sent by the Yamen of the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou caught up with Gan Wenkun's team and presented the Green Battalion directly under the Governor of Yungui in the Great Qing Dynasty to report to the Chief Li Bao! The secret report said: In the morning of the third day of the eighth month of the ninth year of Kang Mazi in the Qing Dynasty, four loud noises were heard in the camp of the right town of Wu Sangui's army, which was suspected to be the sound of artillery firing!

In the early morning of the sixth day of the eighth month of the ninth year of Kang Mazi in the Great Qing Dynasty, Gan Wenkun, the governor of Yungui in the Great Qing Dynasty, arrived at Shengjing Pass, and at the same time arrived at Shengjing Pass, as well as two hundred light horsemen from Pu'anwei (now Pan County) in Guizhou of the Great Qing Dynasty. The front foot entered the pass, and the back foot of Governor Gan announced the closure of the Shengjing Pass, which was taken over by the Pu'an Wei cavalry, and all the soldiers guarding the Shengjing Pass were seized! The only carrier pigeon that flew up from Shengjing Pass was also shot down by Gan Guocheng, the son of Governor Gan, and intercepted the news that Governor Gan went to Yunnan secretly.

In the early morning of the seventh day of the eighth month of the ninth year of Kang Mazi in the Great Qing Dynasty, Gan Wenkun, the governor of Yungui in the Great Qing Dynasty, arrived at the city of Qujing! But it's a pity that Lu Yifeng and Li Bao reported together, saying that just four hours ago, two mysterious carriages had been escorted by Wu Sangui's 500 cavalry, and they left the camp of Wu Sangui's right town first, and took the official road south to Kunming! Gan Wenkun, the governor of Yungui in the Great Qing Dynasty, was furious and ordered his team to work tirelessly and pursue at full speed!

At noon at noon on the seventh day of the eighth month of the Great Qing Dynasty, near Yilong Fort in Qujing Prefecture, under the guidance of Lu Yifeng's eyeline in Qujing Zhi County, the Gan Wenkun team caught up with the Wu Sangui army team escorting two mysterious carriages.

Unexpectedly, the generals and soldiers of Wu Sangui's army who escorted the carriage were obsessed, not only resolutely refused to inspect, but even pushed the carriage into the Chehong River, and then scattered in a hurry and fled without a trace. Governor Gan immediately cordoned off the scene and salvaged two newly cast prohibited artillery pieces from the Chehong River - Hongyi Cannon!

A day later, Governor Gan held the holy decree of the Emperor of the Great Qing Dynasty and forcibly broke into the camp of Wu Sangui's army to inspect the Nule Peak, but it is a pity that because of the various actions of the Governor Gan before, the Wu Sangui thief army of the Nule Peak camp has hastily transferred most of the incriminating evidence, and the Governor Gan only found some black gunpowder, solid iron bullets, semi-finished products of the fire dragon and a smoothbore gun mold that was not destroyed in time. There are also mountains of black coking coal, raw cement and finished products in the process of calcination, semi-finished glass, and a very small amount of cotton of unknown use. 、

At the same time, Governor Gan ordered the whole camp to search for a middle-aged scholar named Sun Dianying, but found nothing, and it is believed that this mysterious scholar named Sun Dianying had escaped in advance.

In the early morning of the next day, a thousand light horsemen of Wu Sangui's army, under the personal leadership of Wu Sangui's second son, Wu Yingqi, arrived at the camp of Nule Peak and demanded that Gan Wenkun withdraw from the camp of Nule Peak, claiming that the camp of Nule Peak was nothing more than an ordinary construction site for calcining cement and glass, that black gunpowder was used to make firecrackers, that solid iron bullets were used for solid land, that musket molds were made by private craftsmen, and that fire dragons were semi-finished products - this kind of weapon was not prohibited. As for the newly cast Hongyi cannon salvaged by Governor Gan, the second prince of Wu Yingqi insisted that it was not owned by his own army, let alone admitted that this kind of artillery came from the Nulefeng battalion.

After a fierce dispute, in view of the lack of sufficient evidence to prove that the two Hongyi cannons came from the Nule Peak camp, and considering the ferocious murderous aura of Wu Yingqi, Gan Wenkun, the governor of Yungui in the Great Qing Dynasty, chose to temporarily retreat, withdrew from the Nule Peak camp, and sent the two Hongyi cannons and some of the incriminating evidence found to be escorted to the capital to present to the Qing Dynasty chaff emperor.

At the same night, Wu Sangui, the prince of Pingxi in the Qing Dynasty, impeached Gan Wenkun, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, and framed him out of thin air, and claimed that the two Hongyi cannons were the old things of the former Ming Dynasty, and they were also sent to the capital of the Qing Dynasty in the starry night............

(To be continued)