Now what Cao Yue wants most is to develop a steam engine as soon as possible.

In his mind, with the steam engine, the real industrial revolution would begin, with ironclad ships, trains, automobiles, and even airplanes.

When these modern means of transportation come out, the earth-shaking changes will begin, the national strength of the Ming Dynasty will continue to grow by leaps and bounds, and the weapons of the army will be highly modernized.

For this reason, Cao Yue also offered a heavy prize, saying that if anyone first developed a steam-powered propulsion apparatus, that is, a steam engine, he would reward one million taels of silver in his personal name.

In the eyes of the people of the time, including those Westerners who came across the ocean to the Ming Dynasty, one million taels of silver is definitely an unimaginable astronomical amount. At the current price level, you can almost buy more than 100,000 acres of fertile land. There are a large number of small principalities in Europe today, and some of them are less than 100,000 acres in size.

If they can own such a large area of land in the West, they are nobles, and they can even have titles hanging on their heads, which is a fatal temptation for Western scholars.

For local technicians, although one million taels of silver cannot be said to be rich, it is enough for them to live for several lifetimes.

There must be brave men under heavy rewards, so many people who study physics are full of enthusiasm to devote themselves to the development of steam technology.

Cao Yue explained to them the principle of steam-driven machinery, the technology of pistons and cylinders, and these people who have studied physics quickly found the way. In order not to waste time, energy and resources, under the personal leadership of Cao Yue, a research team was set up to gather all physicists to develop steam technology.

Cao Yue believed. The steam engine would soon appear on the land of China, and he began to prepare to build trains and lay railroad tracks on the land of China. If steam technology appears, then trains can be made quickly, and with trains and rails connecting the north and south of the Ming Dynasty, the east and west of the Ming Dynasty will be completely changed.

Cao Yue was very busy, he had almost no free time, fighting on women's bodies at night, and at military academies and academies during the day. Running between the arsenal, the barracks, and the court, before Daming Technology did not have an obvious overall improvement, and his concept was not fully understood and accepted by others, many things could only be handled by himself. He also had to pay close attention to the fighting in the north and west, and make new arrangements in a timely manner.

In the Ming Dynasty, no one attaches as much importance to science and technology as he does, and no one understands all kinds of high-tech like him. No one understands modern warfare better than him, so there is no way to hand over many things to others, and many times Cao Yue can only laugh at himself. He's busier than a dog right now.

Cao Yue was reassured that the preparations for the establishment of the Military Academy were progressing very smoothly, that Chinese and foreign scholars at the Academy of Sciences were working very diligently, and that the military operations in the north and west were also progressing smoothly. There is no need for him to worry about everything, the reversal of Daming's national fortunes has become a trend, and no one can stop it.

After Cao Bianjiao led the army out of the customs to fight. After a series of battles, he quickly recovered Songshan, Jinzhou, and Liaoyang, which were occupied by Jiannu, and recovered most of the land outside the pass that originally belonged to the Ming Dynasty. In the face of the powerful artillery bombardment and musket fire of the Ming army, Dolgon and the Duoduo brothers were still helpless, and they finally abandoned these cities, shrinking their men and horses to retreat north, preparing to stick to the area of Shengjing.

The passage of Jiannu to attack Korea was also basically blocked by the Ming army, and North Korea soon broke away from the control of Jiannu and re-threw itself into the arms of the Ming Dynasty, willing to be a vassal of the Ming Dynasty again.

The Korean army, which originally followed Jiannu to fight the Ming army, became the servants who followed behind the Ming army and attacked Jiannu. It's just that Cao Bianjiao didn't look at the North Korean army squarely, and didn't let them act as cannon fodder, but just let them play the role of the people. North Korea also has to share part of the cost of the war, and Cao Bianjiao's promise to North Korea is that the Ming Dynasty will always protect North Korea's security.

Cao Bianjiao, who once again learned the great power of firearms, has safely abandoned the previous concept of war, and when training soldiers in peacetime, he also takes the shooting accuracy of muskets as the main requirement, and the bow, arrow, knife and gun technology has retreated to a subordinate position.

Cao Bianjiao also knew that in future wars, the protagonists could only be firearms and sergeants who were proficient in firearms.

Out of the customs battle, Lian won the battle, recovered most of the original Daming city occupied by Jiannu, Cao Bianjiao's confidence greatly increased, he in the presentation to the imperial court, with a very confident tone to continue to attack Jiannu, recover Shengjing, completely eliminate the threat of Jiannu. The imperial court also replied to Cao Bianjiao's request, and ordered him to lead the northern expedition to continue to pursue and suppress Jiannu, and as long as Jiannu continued to resist, they would all be eliminated.

Shengjing must be recovered, the so-called Manchu State must be eliminated, and the Mongols and other tribes, as long as they dare to continue to confront the Ming Dynasty, will also become the target of conquest like Jiannu.

Originally, Cao Yue only wanted the Red Lady to lead the army to suppress the Liukou and prevent the Liukou from going to Henan and Shanxi to cause sabotage. However, after the Red Lady led the army to the front line in Shaanxi, she did not respect Cao Yue's orders before the war, and launched a large-scale active attack. And several groups of men and horses also fought very bravely, easily repelled the blocking rogues, and advanced in the direction of Xi'an like a broken bamboo.

The strong combat effectiveness of the Ming army, coupled with the call issued by the Red Lady as the leader of the original righteous army, as well as the effect of secretly sending people to contact, after the Ming army won the battle, a large number of rogues gave up resistance and surrendered to the Ming army.

Today's Liukou, the situation is actually very bad, the Guanzhong area is already very barren, the years of war have greatly reduced people, the output of the whole Shaanxi is very small, and the people have no way to feed themselves. Coupled with the exploitation of the rogues and the stability of the local situation controlled by the Ming court, many people desperately fled from Guanzhong and went to other places to find a livelihood.

In the area of Guanzhong, the population has further decreased, and the grain output has also seriously declined, which has seriously led to the fluctuation of military morale, and the phenomenon of desertion of the so-called Dashun Army is very serious. In the face of the steady advance of the Ming army with strong combat effectiveness, no "Dashun" general dared to lead the army to resist head-on, and the military operation launched by the Red Lady went very smoothly.

In the course of the war, the Red Lady has received many people sent by important figures of "Dashun" to contact, all of whom want to leave a way back for themselves and are unwilling to continue to work hard for Li Zicheng. Knowing that the rogue led by Li Zicheng is gone, how can the red lady, who is not far away from being destroyed, give up the opportunity to beat the water dog? She repeatedly wrote to the imperial court and Cao Yue to agree with her to attack Xi'an and completely eliminate Li Zicheng's troops.

In the end, Cao Yue also agreed to the invitation of the Red Lady, ordered her to lead the army to attack Xi'an, and sent reinforcements for her, and the reinforcement army of 60,000 horses of the three guard divisions also set off from Hubei and marched to Shanxi.

Cao Yue also sent a letter of persuasion to Xi'an, asking Li Zicheng to give up resistance and surrender to the Ming Guards! (To be continued.) )