In the north of Shenyang, there is a large shack area, although it is winter, it does not feel deserted, there is a dense knocking sound inside, smoke floats above the shack area, and the steaming heat can be felt in the periphery. This is the gathering area of the blacksmiths of the Later Jin, and their duty is to provide the Houjin army with excellent armor, and the Houjin give back to them just enough food to save their lives.

Houjin Khan's weaving golden dragon flag marched on the official road outside the shack area, and the Manchu, Han and Mongolian people of all ethnic groups along the way knelt on the side of the road, crawling down with their heads bowed. Huang Taiji didn't have too many guards of honor, he stood tall on his horse and looked at the surrounding situation lightly. This year was a good year for him, because of his persistence, the battle of the entrance was able to be carried out smoothly, and the banners had a good income "In addition to a large amount of gold, silver and cloth, he also took tens of thousands of people captive from the Guannei, and these people insisted on going to Liaodong, all of whom were strong men and women, which greatly made up for the manpower gap of the Later Jin.

This victory greatly increased his authority, and Amin was stripped of his title by Huang Taiji in the name of the Council of Parliament because of his clumsy performance in the Battle of the Four Cities, and he was completely out of power, and was replaced by the obedient Zilharang with the blue banner. And Dai Shan and Mang Gurtai temporarily opposed the entrance when they were in Karaqin, originally intending to weaken the prestige of Huang Taiji, but now they are lifting a stone and shooting themselves in the foot, and the influence of the two has weakened a lot, and the original domineering and even provocative behavior has been reined in.

The only thing that made him unhappy was the failure of the battle of Gu'an and the Four Cities, the number of losses of the Houjin army and the servant army reached more than 2,300, plus the death of diseases on the way, the loss of more than 2,600 people, including more than 1,200 real Manchurian soldiers, the others were the left and right wings of Mongolia and the outer Mongolia, according to the feedback of the defeated soldiers, the Ming army that fought the most vigorously in the Battle of the Four Cities was the Wendeng battalion, indicating that the victory of the Ming army in Gu'an was not a moment of luck, so that he kept his heart on this army, and quickly ordered Li Yongfang to increase the details of the Wendeng camp.

Relative to the losses, he was even more dissatisfied with the fact that some of the outer Mongols suffered heavy losses in the Battle of the Four Cities, and these herdsmen were broken into courage, and after returning to the tribe, they trumpeted the might of the Ming army's artillery, and the Hongyi cannon was blown into the power of the thunder god, which directly affected his strategic goal of establishing a solid suzerainty. Coupled with the failure of the two attacks on Liaoxi, he had an extremely thirsty mentality for the Hongyi artillery, and was eager to obtain this sharp weapon to balance the Ming army.

As he thought, the procession had entered a high wall in the shack area, and after entering two gates, it came to a halt in an empty dam, which was already full of kneeling people, and beside it was a red cannon.

Yue Tuo on the side wanted to come up to help him pull the horse, but Huang Taiji didn't wait for him to come over, and he came down skillfully.

"The minions knock on the Great Khan!" The kneeling craftsmen shouted in unison.

Huang Taiji nodded slightly, and Ji'er Harang said loudly: "Ding Qiming got up and spoke." ”

A man kneeling in the front row hurriedly kowtowed, then stood up, lowered his eyebrows and smiled with a flattering smile, and looked at the ground with his eyes. He is Ding Qiming, who turned out to be the pacesetter deputy general of Liu Zhilun, who was the squire of the Ministry of War, in the battle of the entrance last year, he followed Liu Zhilun to send troops, and was ordered to attack Luo Wenyu, but he was defeated and captured, because he did not take the initiative to vote, Huang Taiji demoted him by one level, and named him a guerrilla in May.

Liu Zhilun and Jin Sheng and others are close friends, although Jin Sheng does not believe in Western religion, but has a lot of contacts with Western missionaries in Beijing, and is very interested in the idea of Catholicism "Mingwu Chalun", Western missionaries at that time mostly used Western weapons as a stepping stone to the handover of the imperial court, in Japan, and the same is true in China, so after Jin Sheng's exchange, Yu Hongyi Cannon has some understanding, Liu Zhilun's wooden cannon has been guided by him, Ding Qiming as a standard general, has been following Liu Zhilun's side, so he has some understanding of Hongyi cannon.

Although he may not even be half-irrigated, he is an expert to Huang Taiji, who is extremely lacking in talent, so let him take charge of the casting of the Hongyi Cannon.

Huang Taiji said lightly to Ding Qiming: "Ding guerrilla, how is the matter of making artillery." ”

Ding Qiming cautiously replied: "Back to the Great Khan, according to what the villain saw in the Jingying artillery, he added a gun carriage for this Zhenguo Longwei General (Note 1), which has been tested, and can be dragged by oxen, and the future artillery carriages can be made according to this." ”

Zilharang frowned and said, "Let you talk about making cannons, what's the matter with the gun carriage." ”

Huang Taiji smiled slightly, and shook his hand at Ji'er Harang, "And listen to Ding's guerrilla." ”

Although it was ice and snow, Ding Qiming's forehead was full of sweat, he followed the Houjin soldiers back to Liaodong, the captured Han people were full of bones, along the way the Houjin army's brutality made him extremely palpitated, even if he is now a guerrilla, an ordinary Manchurian soldier dares to shout at him.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to Huang Taiji: "Great sweat, it's cold outside, it's ...... inside the house."

"Say it right here." Huang Taiji interrupted him, and said to the Han craftsmen on the ground: "Everyone, get up, it's cold, don't frostbite my subjects." ”

Although he spoke, but none of the Han craftsmen on the ground dared to move, they all looked at each other in surprise, Huang Taiji saw this and said again, the tone was still very kind, those craftsmen stood up at this time, this time they were even more uncomfortable, they didn't dare to stand up straight, and they couldn't wait to shrink their bodies into a ball.

Huang Taiji saw that they were all silent, so he simply asked himself, he walked to the cannon, pointed to the cannon and asked, "This cannon is the Zhenguo Longwei General Cannon?" ”

Ding Qiming hurriedly replied: "Great Khan, it is this cannon, the shape of the Hongyi cannon we made, so we came according to this cannon, I heard that this cannon was salvaged from the sea, this is the heavens understand the Great Khan's intentions, and specially sent a sample cannon to my Dajin." ”

Huang Taiji smiled slightly, but did not answer, the Later Jin Army captured many Ming artillery during the Nurhachi period, especially in the Battle of Liaoshen and the Battle of Guangning, these Liaodong cities are richly armed, including the early imitation of the Ming Army's Hongyi cannons, respectively, Luzon bronze cannons and several No. 4 Hongyi small cannons, but Houjin simply does not have enough talents and methods to explore, can not use these defective reference system zuò heavy artillery, the Hongyi cannon in front of him is indeed fished up in the sea, and it happens that he wants to get the Hongyi cannon the most, Even he himself thought it was providential.

Ding Qiming's sycophants were sold, and his mood was a little more relaxed, and he continued: "In June, according to the will of the Great Khan, the minions posted lists everywhere to recruit artillery-making craftsmen. ”

"Let the two of them come over."

Ding Qiming ran to the group of craftsmen in a panic and brought two people over, and the two immediately knelt on the ground again, and Huang Taiji didn't bother to let them get up again, Wen Yan asked, "Where are you two people?" ”

The two were so frightened that they couldn't speak, Ding Qiming hurriedly kicked one of the middle-aged people with a simple appearance, and the man said in a trembling voice: "Yuda, Great Khan, the slave's name is Wang Tianxiang, he is a person from Yongping, go, Liao, Liao, Dajin who followed Haogebeile to last year." ”

"How do you forge cannons?"

When it comes to the problem of making zuò, Wang Tianxiang does not stutter, "Use the lost wax method, first use mud to make a mud core according to the size of the gun, and then cover the outside with wax according to the thickness of the gun wall, and then put a layer of mud shell on the outside after kneading and forming, and bake it with fire after drying for several months, the wax will flow out, and then bake it again and fill it with molten iron, because the wax is not easy to form when the weather is hot, this method is only used when the weather is cold." ”

Huang Taiji listened very carefully, and after listening, he nodded and said: "It's really a wonderful law, come here, and reward ten taels of silver." ”

A Bayala in the back immediately came over and gave Wang Tianxiang ten taels of silver, Wang Tianxiang took it with his mouth open, and Ding Qiming hurriedly reminded: "Thank you quickly." Wang Tianxiang kowtowed and thanked him.

Then another craftsman named Jin Shixiang introduced the clay mold method, first according to the outer shape of the cannon body to rotate into a wooden core, and then press the gun lug, hoop, ornament and other molds, and then apply mud to it, knock out the wooden heart after drying, and inject iron liquid into the clay mold, this method is not limited to the weather, but the time to dry the clay mold is more than four months, and the slightest moisture can not be left in the mud mold.

Huang Taiji rewarded him with ten taels, Ding Qiming twenty taels, and other craftsmen also got two taels of silver, all of whom were grateful, saying that they would live up to the expectations of the leaders and complete the work goals with quality and quantity.

After Ding Qiming thanked him, he said cautiously to Huang Taiji: "Great Khan, it's just, there is only one thing, the slave wants, wants." ”

Huang Taiji looked at him and said kindly: "Ding Guerrilla has something to say, in front of me, there is nothing to say, but things must be done." ”

"Yes, the Great Khan has a broad mind, and the slaves are admired in their hearts, but it is not easy to cast this Hongyi cannon, the shape, iron, clay mold, gunpowder, iron bullet, and the amount of medicine, you need to be careful in all of them, make the mold once, just dry it for at least four months, and if you are a little negligent in the process, it will become a waste cannon, and when the slave is in the capital of the Ming Kingdom, I heard those Hongyi say, even in Western countries, this cannon is not easy to obtain, casting ten cannons, you can get one or two, you can call the national hand, I Dajin has never done this cannon before, these two people were originally made old cannons such as Franc and the general, I am afraid... …”

Huang Taiji sighed softly, looked at Ding Qiming with some suspicion, Yue Tuo beside him leaned over and whispered in his ear: "Great Khan, this is true, the slave asked several captured Ming gunners, and they also said that the Hongyi cannon is very difficult to manufacture, far more than the old cannon. ”

Huang Taiji nodded after hearing this, and praised Yue Tuo: "It's good that you can pay attention to this matter." "Huang Taiji attaches more importance to this Yue Tuo in his heart, Yue Tuo is Dai Shan's eldest son, he has been smart since he was a child, when Shi Shan secretly engaged in Nurhachi's concubine, Nurhachi found out that he was furious, although he did not kill him, but he canceled Dai Shan's qualification to succeed to the throne, and since then he has not been very welcome to Dai Shan, but Nurhachi still likes Yue Tuo very much, and has taken him to his side for several years.

After Huang Taiji ascended the throne, Yue Tuo was in charge of the red flag, and Dai Shan was in charge of the red flag, which was a big force in the Eight Banners, but he was not as domineering as his father Dai Shan, and many times he listened to Huang Taiji's words, Yue Tuo was also very shrewd, knowing that Huang Taiji had recently attached importance to artillery, he looked for the Ming army who had been a gunner in the banner, and was very attentive to help the staff, and his efforts were not in vain, and he won a good impression of Huang Taiji.

Huang Taiji said to Ding Qiming: "Since this is the case, Ding Guerrilla can do it with confidence, but you must do your best, if you can't be cautious, I will not punish you, if you can get one or two cannons, then you are a national soldier, and I will treat it with a national soldier." ”――

Note 1: Zhenguo Longwei General Cannon, Tiancong four years from the coast of Liaodong salvage, the origin is unknown, is the first regular Hongyi heavy artillery obtained by the Later Jin. It was researched by Mr. Huang Yinong from the "Artillery Atlas" in the early Qing Dynasty. (To be continued.)