The gunpowder weapons developed during the Qing Dynasty were mainly heavy artillery. The manufacture of firearms by the Qing people began in the fifth year of the Later Jin Tiancong (1631), and Jinzhou became the manufacturing base of the Qing army before entering the customs.

In 1642 A.D., Huang Taiji ordered the leaders of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty to lead the gunsmiths to Jinzhou to cast the Shenwei General Cannon (Hongyi Cannon), and in 1643 sent people to Jinzhou to supervise the manufacture of Hongyi Cannon, like this batch of batches of officials to make cannons, the first climax of firearms production in the Qing Dynasty.

In the early Qing Dynasty, it was still manufactured in large quantities, and during the Shunzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, in order to suppress the peasant army and eliminate the resistance regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Qing court set up a cannon factory and a gunpowder factory in Beijing, which was managed by the War Bureau, which led to the second upsurge of firearms production in the Qing Dynasty.

Before the Qing army entered the customs in 1644, the Ming Dynasty could still use the original non-large-scale artillery and new artillery to compete with the Qing army, which was proficient in mounted archery and good at field warfare.

After the Qing army entered the customs in 1644, the Ming army and the righteous army could no longer stop the Qing army, which was proficient in cavalry and archery, good at field warfare, and had advanced Hongyi artillery group equipment.

By the time of Kangxi, the scale, quality, and craftsmanship of Manchu firearms manufacturing had reached its peak.

After the middle of the Qing Dynasty, the rule was stable, and at the same time, in order to prevent the Han people and facilitate the rule of the Manchus, the Manchu Qing halted the development of firearms.

Until the middle of the 19th century, around the time of the Opium War, under the internal and external troubles, the Qing government rushed to produce a large number of firearms, and the third firearms production climax in the Qing Dynasty.

However, at this time, the technology and performance of firearms in the Manchu Qing Dynasty were far behind those made by the Western powers, and they could no longer stop the Western invasion of China.

The cannons of the early Qing Dynasty absorbed the advanced technology of Western cannons and developed them.

The Qing government also installed sights on all cannons, which improved the accuracy of firing.

They also strengthened the cannon body, such as the "Shenwei General" gun body is 8 feet 5 inches long, which increased the range of the cannon and enhanced the lethality of the artillery. In addition, there was a gun carriage and a sub-cannon.

In this way, the artillery of the Qing Dynasty has been greatly improved compared with the Ming Dynasty, which not only enhances the lethality of the artillery, but also improves the speed of the artillery, and the cannons of the Qing Dynasty have been divided into two kinds of light artillery and heavy artillery according to weight.

From 27 catties to 390 catties is called light artillery, and from 560 catties to 7000 catties is called heavy artillery.

Before the Qing army entered the customs and unified China, most of them used heavy artillery, such as the "Shenwei General" weighing 3,800 catties, they used these heavy artillery to attack the city, invincible, to ensure the smooth progress of the battle.

Later, the battles to quell the rebellion of the three feudatories were mostly carried out in the mountains, and the heavy artillery was inconvenient to march and use, so the Qing government built many light artillery to suppress the rebellion.

The shape of the cannon in the early Qing Dynasty, as well as the name still imitates the "Shenwei General" of the Ming Dynasty, is a long barrel, with a front and a back, and the length of the cannon is proportional to the caliber.

The cannon is cast in bronze, thin in front and thick in the back, and 2 in length. 83 meters, four uplifts, weight 1950 kg, medication 2. 5 kg, 5 kg iron, mounted on a four-wheeled gun car, has the advantages of long barrel and large amount of ammunition, is a sharp weapon for attacking and destroying fortified cities.

The gun belongs to the front-loading artillery, that is, the gunpowder and projectile are directly loaded from the muzzle, the use of arquebus ignition, no rifling in the barrel, smoothbore artillery. The gun body is made of copper, and the trunnions are placed on both sides of the middle to support and balance the gun body and adjust the pitch angle, so as to enhance the gun's killing range and fire mobility.

The gift brought by Shi Lang, Huang Ting and others this time was the Shenwei General Cannon.

Seeing these artillery, Zheng Chenggong was very happy.

With heavy artillery, it's much easier to storm a city!

Zheng Chenggong, who was in a good mood, persuaded Pingping to drink at the banquet, and was stunned to pour Huang Ting, Shi Lang and others into a drunken state.

And Zheng Chenggong, who has always been troubled by money and food, and the territory, after the troubles in his heart were resolved, this time he also let go of his knot at the banquet and indulged in indulgence.

After getting drunk, Zheng Chenggong, who was in a good mood, even performed a sword dance in public at the banquet, which provoked a burst of applause from his subordinates.

The arrogant and competitive Shi Lang also struggled to get up when he heard the cheers of everyone, and wanted to come forward to dance, but unfortunately he was drunk with spirits, and just after a few dances, he fell down and fell asleep, causing everyone to laugh.

At this banquet, everyone was happy and happy.

The only small flaw is that Zheng Chenggong himself did not persist to the end of the banquet, and he was drunk and unconscious.

However, Huang Ting and others were more grateful and loyal to Liu Ming because of this.

Huang Ting and others felt that the reason why Zheng Chenggong was like this was because he did not treat himself and others as outsiders and could treat them equally, so he was so out of shape.

Even Shi Lang, who has always been unaccustomed to Zheng Chenggong, thinks that although Zheng Chenggong is not very good, he is a bold person, and he can barely be regarded as a candidate who can take refuge.

In China, the banquet is an excellent place to get closer to the relationship between people, and the relationship is not very good when you drink a drink, and even the relationship between Lin Xishan, Yang Cai, and the newly refuted Huang Ting, Cheng Sheng and others immediately improved.

Although it was not intimate, it was also a good relationship. Except, of course, Shi Lang, who is the object of rejection wherever the character of two hundred and five is located. It's just that Shi Lang is still unconscious, and often thinks that he disdains to be with them.

The most resentful person about Shi Lang's character is Zheng Chenggong, that damn two hundred and five, who is always very self-controlled, often makes Zheng Chenggong, who is the main father, unable to get off the stage.

For example, the day after the banquet, Zheng Chenggong decided to attack Raoping County, one was to collect money and food, and the other was to personally test how effective heavy artillery was in conquering the city, so as to accumulate experience in the future. So Zheng Chenggong ordered the transfer of a large army to attack Raoping.

But as soon as the order was given, that Shi Lang jumped out on the spot, patted his chest and said, "The general doesn't have to work so hard, Raoping County originally only had three or four thousand soldiers and horses, and after Hao Shangjiu transferred two and five soldiers and horses, there were only more than a thousand soldiers and horses in the city at this time. As long as the general lends 300 of my soldiers to demonstrate under the city, Raoping County will definitely be able to win without a fight. ”

More than 300 soldiers dared to attack the city guarded by more than 1,000 soldiers and horses, and when he heard Shi Lang's unashamed boasting, Zheng Chenggong almost didn't swallow his own saliva, so he came back to his senses and said, "This is not a foolproof plan." Thou hast deceived the Manchus and had no good people, and if someone took advantage of the opportunity for you to be unprepared and charged and killed with cavalry, not only 500 people would suffer, but also greatly damaged their spirits. Never available. ”

Since he can win according to the law, he must take risks, and he has to test the power of a heavy artillery, how can Shi Lang stir up, so Zheng Chenggong did not use Shi Lang's strategy.

Seeing that his opinion was not adopted, Shi Lang was displeased.

Zheng Chenggong led an army of more than 2,000 people to Raoping County, which was built in the thirteenth year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty (1477).

Previously, Wang Shipeng, a scholar of Longtu Pavilion in the Southern Song Dynasty, had traveled to Rao, stayed overnight in Shuangliu Temple, heard the sound of drums and horns, looked in all directions, saw the mountains and rivers and strange shows, and said that this place will be a city in the future. Then the topic "The world is in chaos, there is no worry here; The world is famine, and half harvested here", and the county was named "Raoping" with this implication when the county was placed. Cover "Rao will never be barren, peace will never be chaotic" also. The county is located in the Xiange capital Xiarao Fort (now Sanrao Town), and the name of the county has not changed so far.

When the army came to Raoping City, they saw that the city gate was closed, there was not a single soldier or general in the city, and the banners were all hidden.

Seeing such a scene, Shi Lang jumped out again and said, "General, it must be that Rao Pingzhi County is afraid and has already fled. The general can immediately attack the city. ”

Nonsense, who doesn't know that the city is going to be attacked now! However, Zheng Chenggong, who had his own plans, still did not adopt Shi Lang's advice to immediately attack the city, but let the vine armor soldiers go to the front for a good formation, and then let the artillery battalion come forward, and the city gate collapsed after two rounds of cannon bombardment!

Seeing that the city gate had been breached, Zheng Chenggong ordered Zheng Jiajun to follow the training steps and go to capture Raoping City.

The artillery continued to bombard the Raoping city wall, the archers and fire commanders hurriedly stepped forward, and used long-range fire under the city wall to suppress the hypothetical enemy on the city wall.

This was Zheng Chenggong's worst-case scenario, as once the city gate was blocked, they had to bravely seize the city wall with the help of artillery bombardment while the enemy focused on the city gate.

The momentum of the Zheng family's siege of the city was very huge, but the Qing soldiers of Raoping City were very uncooperative, and none of the Qing soldiers dared to come out to block it, resulting in the siege of the city, although there was a kind of siege atmosphere, but it was a lack of actual combat.

Without the obstruction of the Qing soldiers, Zheng Jiajun conquered Raoping City very smoothly, seeing that Raoping City was conquered so smoothly, Zheng Chenggong was very satisfied, although the actual combat performance was a little worse, but it was also very beneficial to be able to complete a siege training without casualties.

Zheng Chenggong waved his hand and led a group of generals into Raoping City.

After catching those surrendered officials in the city, Zheng Chenggong learned that Raoping's garrison generals had been bombarded by Zheng Chenggong before, and there were no corpses.

And after Hao Shangjiu was defeated and fled back to Raoping, he let the remaining soldiers and horses protect him and fled back to Chaozhou Mansion overnight.

Seeing this situation, Rao Pingzhi County had no way to block the enemy's siege, so he himself took his family and fled away from the city.

There is no garrison, no county, and no Qing soldiers, Rao Pingcheng will naturally be easily conquered by the Zheng family's army!

Hao Shangjiu was in a hurry, and nearly 120,000 stone of grain and grass in Raoping City, and the treasury worth 200,000 taels of silver could not be taken away, and these ultimatums were all put into Zheng Chenggong's pocket.

The New Year is coming, and Zheng Chenggong, who is prosperous in both people and money, smiles all day long.

The only fly in the ointment is that although Raoping Town is good, it is a pity that it is sandwiched between Fujian and Guangdong, too far away from its base camp, too close to Guangzhou, the southern headquarters of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and its 20,000 soldiers and horses cannot compete with hundreds of thousands of Qing soldiers for the time being.

After a series of battles, Zheng Chenggong also had more insights into military affairs, and knowing the trade-offs, he ordered the squad to go home after resting for two days in Raoping.

The Spring Festival is approaching, and the soldiers of the Zheng family army have been attacking for more than half a year, and they are homesick.

A large group of people took the ship proudly and happily went home for the Spring Festival with the money and food they had scavenged all the way!

Although he did not capture any piece of territory, Zheng Chenggong had a rich harvest this time, seizing a total of 580,000 taels of silver, 660,000 stones of grain and grass, and a number of military supplies.

With the newly recruited 2,000 recruits, Zheng Chenggong returned to Kinmen with a happy mood.