"Yoshida-sama, I came to Manila for my own glory and wealth, but also for an opportunity. Of course Yamada Nagamasa-sama was later parased? Although he is no longer alive, his deeds in Siam will be remembered by future generations. Whether you want to stay in Manila and be the owner of this Yoshidaya, or go to Hangzhou with me to create a career, you can choose for yourself! With that, Lin Heshui stood up, gently patted Yoshida Okuiji on the shoulder, and walked out of the house.

Yoshida Okiji sat motionless on the tatami mats in the room, and if it weren't for the slight heaving of his chest, he would almost think it was a wooden statue. It was getting dark, and the young man on duty outside saw him like this, and he didn't dare to disturb him, so he had to go to the candlestick on the side, and carefully light the candles one by one.

"When you go to Mr. Lin, you will say that I have agreed to that matter, and ask him to come over to discuss!"

"Yes, sir!" The young man answered, owed to Yoshida Okiji, took two steps back and was about to turn away, when suddenly he heard a soft sound, and the light in the room suddenly dimmed, and it turned out that the candle had been half shortened, and the upper half fell to the ground and rolled gently.

Chaoyi, arsenal.

Liu Cheng stroked the smooth surface of the cannon, although this steel beast weighing several tons still looks very crude in the eyes of the traverser, but the sense of impact brought by close contact is still incomparable in front of the TV and computer screen in the past, Liu Cheng almost reluctantly looked away from the cannon, and asked Wang Xingguo on the side: "This is the cannon you took from the Spanish warship?" ”

"Exactly!" Wang Xingguo bowed and said, "This one is twenty-four pounds, and there is a smaller one, which is sixteen pounds, each with four doors." With the general Hongfu, the last general escorted it here, and Lord Zhao asked each of them to leave one door for imitation, and the remaining six gates were sent to the Naturalization City, ready to be installed at the head of the Naturalization City. “

"Well, well done!" Liu Cheng nodded and asked Tang Muyao on the side, "Muyao, how is the imitation going?" ”

"Your Excellency!" Tang Muyao replied with some embarrassment: "The matter of imitating this kind of cannon has not yet begun!" ”

"Huh?" Liu Cheng frowned: "What's going on, why don't you start faster?" ”

"That's it! After the cannon arrived, Mr. Thomas said that the cannon was placed on a large ship, and that it was too heavy to move on land, and that it was used to besiege the fortress or placed on the fortress, and that the adults could not use it for a while. The important thing is to build the gun carriage and the small cannon that can advance and retreat with the large army. After Tang Muyao finished speaking, he lowered his head, a little afraid that Liu Cheng would be angry because of his and Thomas's self-assertions.

"What happened to the gun carriage and the cannon?"

Seeing that Liu Cheng was not angry, Tang Muyao couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, and hurriedly replied: "My lord, there is no problem with the gun carriage, according to the schematic diagram drawn by Mr. Thomas, the craftsmen have already produced more than a dozen of them, but the cannon casting craftsmen are not very good, there are a lot of scraps, and there are only three samples at the moment." ”

"Hmmm! Check it out first! ”

"Yes, please come with me!"

Under the guidance of Tang Muyao, Liu Cheng and his party left the factory, passed through two earthen walls, and entered a narrow aisle, one side of the aisle was a mound, and the other side was the Yellow River, and the ground was a road paved with gravel and cinder, which had been crushed into two rather smooth ruts by the wheels. Seeing Liu Cheng's attentive look, Tang Muyao hurriedly explained: "This is made by Mr. Thomas, and the extra cinders and slag from the ironmaking plant are used to pave the road, killing two birds with one stone!" ”

"Hmm!" Liu Cheng nodded: "Although this Thomas is a Xiyi, but he is quite unique in the process, the stones of other mountains can attack jade, you must study hard, you must not be arrogant, you must keep in mind the truth that the capable are teachers!" ”

"What the adults are teaching you a lesson!" Tang Muyao hurriedly responded, at this time everyone had reached the end of the road, and the mound suddenly turned towards the river, forming a closed open space of more than 30 acres, which was the firearms test ground of the arsenal. On the side of the road, more than a dozen sergeants and craftsmen were busy beside a four-wheeled carriage-like machine under the command of a Yiren, and someone saw Liu Cheng and his party coming, and hurriedly knelt down to greet them.

"My lord, that Yangyi's name is Sancho, and he is the gunner and craftsman of the Queen Mary! Wang Xingguo whispered to Liu Cheng.

"Get up!" Liu Cheng looked at the Spaniard named Sancho, only to see that his figure was thin and tall, and his face was tanned by the subtropical sun was full of the kind of indifferent expression unique to veterans who had experienced life and death, and when he walked to the machine, he immediately found its peculiarity, this four-wheeled vehicle is actually composed of two parts before and after, the front half of the car is a very delicate cabinet, divided into four layers, left and right two grids, the cabinet has the work of the coachman, the front is the wheel, and the tail has a wrought iron rod about one meter long; The second half can be seen to be a gun carriage for carrying artillery, but compared with the gun carriage used by the Ming army at that time, the structure is much more complicated, there are some unknown tools on the side, and there is a wrought iron tow bar sticking out at the front end.

"Honorable General!" Sancho bowed deeply to Liu Cheng, his head almost touching his knees: "It's an honor to introduce you to this beautiful young lady, although she is a little spicy when she starts a fire!" “

"Huh!" Liu Cheng couldn't help laughing: "It doesn't matter, as long as the girl is beautiful, it's okay to have a bad temper, but does she have a loud voice?" Did you dance well? “

"Awesome! As long as she sings and dances, she can immediately make more than a dozen men lie on the ground, dancing for her, and calling non-stop! Sancho turned and shouted to his men, "Hurry, hurry, work harder, let the general see what we've been doing these days!" Hurry up, or I'll kick you in the ass with these boots! ”

Hearing Sancho's reprimand, the soldiers and craftsmen were obviously faster, and soon they finished assembling the rear car, putting the tools into the cabinet of the front car one by one, and then more than a dozen strong men lifted the cannon body on the side and carefully placed it on the rear car. Liu Cheng looked at his work and asked Tang Muyao on the side, "How is this person?" ”

"Very hard!" Tang Muyao said in a low voice: "Don't talk about Thomas, it's that many of our own people are not as good as him, although he is not too good at casting cannons, but he knows a lot about these bits and pieces and cannons, which helps a lot?" ”

Liu Cheng saw that things were almost busy over there, and said to Tang Muyao: "Then you call him over, and I'll ask him a few words!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

"General!" Sancho bowed to Liu Cheng, and Liu Cheng noticed that his hair was gray, and his face was covered with deep wrinkles, not to mention that he was in his forties, and he was wearing a pair of bare feet, stepping on the sand, which was particularly conspicuous.

"Why don't you wear shoes? Don't have the money to buy? Liu Cheng asked.

"I'm a navy, my lord!" Sancho replied nonchalantly: "To be born on the deck, to die on the deck, it is more comfortable for me to be barefoot!" ”

"Navy?" Liu Cheng laughed: "But you are now on the shore, and you are also training artillery on land." ”

"It doesn't matter, sooner or later I'll have to go back to the ship!" Sancho smiled: "My lord, although the land is vast, it can't catch up with the sea!" ”

"You're right, Sancho, maybe one day I'll go to sea!" Liu Cheng smiled: "By the way, where are you from?" ”

"****** people, General!" Sanqiu saw Liu Cheng's surprised look and smiled: "What's so strange about this? Ever since I stepped on deck at the age of thirteen, I have fought for the Parliament, for the Pope, for the King of France, for His Majesty the Emperor, so what can I do? Sancho's father left him no land and property, and the Italians have no homeland, so we can only work for the adults who can afford it! “

"Well, at least you don't have to worry that I can't afford to pay!" Liu Cheng pointed to the artillery carriage that was ready to stop: "Let's start!" ”

"Yes, General!"

Sancho turned his head and gave a few orders, and the soldiers put together the two iron rods of the front and the back car, and connected them together with an iron chisel through the hole in the middle, and then attached the six horses to the front car. With a few shouts from the driver, the gun carriage moved slowly, and the speed of the car became faster and faster, and soon it could match the speed of ordinary jogging.

"Very good!" Liu Cheng immediately saw the mystery, although the Ming Kingdom also had artillery that could be mounted on four-wheeled carts, but they were usually artillery with less charge, short range and less power, such as Furlong machine guns and tiger squat guns, because the recoil of the artillery when firing was completely carried by the body, and too heavy guns would damage the vehicle, so like the red-coated cannon was generally mounted on a two-wheeled gun carriage, so that most of the recoil could be borne by the ground when firing, but this brought a new problem - when the horse pulled this gun carriage, Part of the weight is borne directly by the horse, making it difficult to maneuver. This new type of detached gun carriage can connect the front and rear vehicles when maneuvering, turning it into a four-wheeled carriage; The shooting was split and turned into a two-wheel gun mount, allowing the ground to bear most of the recoil, which greatly increased the power of field artillery.

"Where's the ammunition?" Liu Cheng asked.

"In the cabinet of the car in front! Each slot can hold two shells, there are eight slots, a total of sixteen shells, it is enough to fight a general battle, if you want more, you have to take it from the ammunition cart in the back! “

"Good, can you shoot?"

"General, this is a three-pounder cannon that has just left the factory, and it has not yet been test-fired, and it still needs to be test-fired! And they are not specially trained, should they wait for the next time? Sancho explained with some hesitation.

"How many doors can you match?"

"There are a lot of gun carriages, and there are enough horses, but there are only three three-pounder light guns, my lord!"

"Very good, then Sanmen, is there anything here that can't be separated from you?" Liu Cheng asked.

"Nope!" Sancho shook his head a little inexplicably: "The craftsmen here are very smart, just watch me do it once, they will."

"You rush to work tonight, load the three guns, and then take the necessary craftsmen and gunners, and set out with me early tomorrow morning! Let's talk about something when we get to Naturalization City! Speaking of this, Liu Cheng turned his head and left, leaving behind the inexplicable crowd, the first to react was Tang Muyao, the two hurriedly chased after him, Tang Muyao asked in a low voice: "My lord, what is missing on the road, the villain should arrange it in advance!" ”

"What's missing?" Liu Cheng stopped: "You go to the market, pick up all kinds of things that women like, buy ten pieces each, and pack them all!" ”

"What do women like?" Tang Muyao was a little confused by Liu Cheng, this range was bigger, he thought about it and asked boldly: "Dare to ask my lord, what are these things you just said for?" ”

Liu Cheng was a little embarrassed by his subordinates, and snorted coldly: "This general soldier is going to marry a wife, what do you say you want to buy?" “

Tang Muyao and Wang Xingguo were taken aback by Liu Cheng's words, and were stunned for a while before coming back to their senses, and hurriedly said in unison: "Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations!" ”

"Alright, alright!" Unlike the vast majority of grooms, Liu Cheng's mood at this time was quite complicated, he only got the news from a messenger of Minmin in Chaoyi, who was ordered to go to Jingshi, but did not want to encounter it in Chaoyi - just a few months ago, Dzungar Khan Baturtaiji took advantage of the opportunity of the spring horse thinness, led the elite to suddenly attack the old enemy Kazakhs, and defeated the Great Yuzi Khan (one of the three major tribes of Kazakhstan) in the Seven Rivers Valley, taking tens of thousands of prisoners and not counting livestock and horses. In this battle, the firearms sent from Liu Cheng played a crucial role, and the strong Kazakh cavalry was defeated by the rows of Jungar gunners who were hiding behind Luocheng, and then the Jungar cavalry launched a counterattack, and the Great Yuzi and Xiao Khan were almost captured. After the great victory, Batur Taiji sent his son Chechen Taiji to escort 4,000 tents, 100,000 miscellaneous animals, 4,000 war horses, and 5,000 camels as the dowry of his daughter Min Min Beji and married Liu Cheng. Obviously, Baturtaiji had only one purpose in doing this - to consolidate his alliance with Liu Cheng, a rapidly rising force, and to lay a solid foundation for his hegemony. There is no doubt that this is good news for Liu Cheng, at least for now, but from the surprise in his heart, he still feels a little vigilant. As Dzungar grew stronger, the balance of power gradually tilted to the west. When the balance is broken, Liu Chengke doesn't think that his marriage to Min Min can make much of a difference. But he knew in his heart that if he was not mistaken, in a few months, that is, after the autumn of this year, the Manchurian army would be enveloped in Korqin, Zalut, Bahrain, Naiman, Aohan, and Karaqin, and move westward, which would be the most severe test since his crossing. It is impossible for him to avoid fighting without fighting, otherwise the prestige that he has built up with great difficulty among the Mongol tribes will disappear, and his Chahar and Tumut tribes will also be scattered and turn to Houjin one after another. At this juncture, an alliance with the Dzungars was indispensable. (To be continued.) )