In May of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty, it was not raining for half a year, and the entire north of the Ming Empire fell into the embarrassment of a great drought. At the beginning of this month, heavy rain fell in Suzhou, Songjiang and Huzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, and the water potential broke out suddenly, surging suddenly, regardless of the embankment, the houses toppled down, and a piece of Heze. The land of fish and rice and the source of wealth of the Ming Dynasty suffered such a catastrophe, and the entire empire was shaken. Dou rice rose to four coins and silver taels, even the rich households were unsustainable, within a thousand miles, the roots of plants and trees were eaten up by the hungry people, and Jiangnan fell into the turmoil that has never been seen since the founding of the Ming Dynasty.

The situation in Shandong is not much better, and only Dengzhou and the neighboring Laizhou have maintained a rare calm in this piece of mourning.

A convoy of about 200 people slowly drove from the official road from Weixian to Changyi, and in the center were more than 20 mule carts full of goods. Most of them were burly, vigilant men, and at first glance it was clear that they were samurai hired by the merchant group to protect the goods of the merchant group. The first carriage of the convoy was still hung with the banner of the merchant group - "Dengzhou Qixiang".

Qixiang is also a time-honored brand in Shandong, with its head office in Jinan. When the Qing army entered the army the year before last, the general number was burned to the ground, and then the Dengzhou Trade Zone was established, and the old owner of the Qixiang Warehouse used the only remaining gold and silver to grit his teeth and buy two shops. Who knows, it is this life-fighting act in the eyes of outsiders, but it really has the effect of reviving the dead. The business of Qixiang Warehouse has risen, and it has recovered in less than two years.

The luck of this warehouse is really good. For a long time, he bought a large number of cotton cloth and silk from Songjiang and Suzhou, and then sold them to overseas merchants who came to Dengzhou. This year, Jiangnan has suffered a disaster, not to mention these silk weaving things, even food and clothing have become a problem now. The old shopkeeper of the Qixiang firm saw the opportunity quickly, and immediately ordered his eldest son to go to Songjiang to receive the goods, and finally exchanged the grain for some extruded silk.

has just entered the realm of Laizhou, and the young shopkeeper finally breathed a sigh of relief. Nowadays, there is great chaos in the north, especially in Shandong, where there are many ringing horses and thieves. Fortunately, the Qixiang firm finally has some friendship on Green Forest Road, and it is safe and sound along the way. As long as you enter the Dengzhou boundary, it is foolproof. In today's Dengzhou, the newly formed new army has reached 10,000 people, and the young shopkeeper has seen it with his own eyes, and that is the elite division of the army and the order. A simple plate armor that seemed to be somewhat similar to the visiting Franc soldiers, a uniform red jacket, black, with a red tasseled iron helmet on the top, and especially the spirit that exuded a murderous aura, made people daunting.

Coupled with the military strength of the four guards, Dengzhou is now guarded by 40,000 troops, not including the Denglai Naval Division, which has now expanded to 300 ships. The entire Dengzhou guards are like iron buckets, and whoever dares to mess around, as long as they set foot on the land of Dengzhou, there is a guarantee of safety.

There is almost no trace on the official road, there are still about thirty miles away from Changyi, you can rest there at night, although everyone is hungry, but there is already a steward of the merchant group who has been instructed by the young shopkeeper to send the boiled potatoes to the hands, although not very delicious, but enough to cushion the stomach first.

To say that this potato, but it is really a good thing, at present, only Denglai two states began to plant on a large scale, and the two states also rely on potatoes and sweet potatoes to survive the current catastrophe year, an acre of land is less than six or seven hundred catties, more than a thousand yields, even experienced farming veterans are surprised. What's more, these two things are still simple to grow, and even in a dry environment, they still haven't had much impact. I think that at the beginning, when Lord Zhu first started to implement, many farmers were still reluctant to plant these things in their fields, but now I found out that this Lord Zhu is the real Buddha of ten thousand families, bringing these two crops into Dengzhou, and there are countless living people!

Nowadays, not only the displaced people from Shandong have gathered in Denglai and the two states, but even the hungry people from Hebei and Zhili have also come closer, and Dengzhou is also all accommodating, I heard that it is to use these displaced people, Zhu Daren sent them to the islands near Dengzhou, reclaimed wasteland, and built a military port wharf, and in a short period of time, most of the islands in the East China Sea have Dengzhou's auxiliary troops stationed.

Think about it, it's better to return to Dengzhou and be down-to-earth, after going back this time, I will talk about my father. When Lord Zhu inspected various places in Dengzhou, he said more than once that the ocean is the gathering place of wealth. This year, there have been many solid people in Dengzhou who have raised their own funds to buy or build armed merchant ships to go to sea, although the risk is greater, but as long as it succeeds once, it is more than ten times the profit. Qixiang is now also regarded as a middle-class merchant in Dengzhou City, and is fully capable of summoning some small businesses to form their own fleet to go to sea.

Thinking of these, the young shopkeeper seemed to have recovered a lot of energy in an instant, and hurriedly ordered everyone to speed up the journey, and they must rush to Changyi tonight to settle down, and step up their itinerary tomorrow and go straight to Dengzhou.

Placed an order and walked out less than five miles, but suddenly found that the official road was blocked by dozens of logs. Everyone was shocked, and the young shopkeeper was also nervous, and before he could say anything to make everyone vigilant, hundreds of black-clothed men suddenly killed on both sides of the road. The men did not speak, and after a flurry of arrows, they pounced on the caravan with various blades in hand.

The young shopkeeper was shocked, and the mount under his crotch was also shot by two cold arrows, and he fell down with a scream, and lifted him off his horse.

"Who are you? We are the Qixiang business name of Dengzhou, you can say anything you want, don't ......! Before he finished speaking, the young shopkeeper closed his mouth. Because, he suddenly found that the purpose of these people was the goods of the caravan, and the shot was even more ruthless, but if he made a move, it was a fatal move, and these hired warriors could barely deal with ordinary bandits, but in front of these people, they were like lambs to the slaughter.

The young shopkeeper saw the clue, and the other people were not stupid, so they fled in all directions with a roar, but those men in black did not intend to stop there, but chased after them, it seemed that they wanted to cut down the grass and eradicate the roots, leaving no one behind.

Several samurai raised by the merchant group desperately protected the young shopkeeper and Shao out of the siege, and it was not too far away, it was a hillside, and in a hurry, the samurai pushed the young shopkeeper down, and they turned back and killed back, intending to use their lives to buy time for the main family to escape.

……

Dengju in May is far less hot than Gyeonggi and Hebei, and it is still breezy and breezy, as if it is still the weather of early spring. After another half a year of construction, the entire Penglai Port has expanded again, and now the wharf can accommodate 200 merchant ships to enter, and the trade area has also expanded by one-third, even so it is still in short supply.

Faced with the arrival of a large number of displaced people, Zhu Ping'an also had a headache at first. The large population put tremendous pressure on Dengzhou, but then Tong Wanjun made a very constructive suggestion. There are hundreds of islands in the sea off Dengzhou, among which there are more than 10 islands such as Changshan Island, Shamen Island, and Dazhu Island, each of which can accommodate more than 2,000 people. The Denglai Naval Division developed steadily, while actively training troops to exterminate pirates. Now Liu Xiaodao and others have washed their hands of gold, and the profits of the sea trade make them rush to join the ranks of the caravan, and some people choose to join the Denglai Sailor, wanting to fight for a name and industry for their children and grandchildren. On the other hand, it is to escort merchant ships, and all the waters of the East China Sea that belong to Denglai can be escorted by sailors, and the caravan only needs to pay the cost of sailing for the sailing of the ship.

In this way, a large number of displaced people became new members of Dengzhou's auxiliary army, and they settled on various islands with their families, and did not have to pay any taxes for three years on the cultivated wasteland, and the government did not interfere with the income from fishing. These people are also soldiers and civilians, regularly receive military training, the government issues weapons, registers, wartime soldiers, peacetime for the people, can also serve as Dengzhou's eyes and ears on the sea.

Today, a group of 2,000 displaced people have traveled by boat to Takayama Island, which will be their new home in the future. With the ship were a hundred official Dengzhou soldiers, as well as a quantity of grain and timber. Zhu Ping'an also rushed to the dock to see him off, accompanied by Yang Dekai, Guo Chai, Yin Shigang and others.

After getting married, Zhu Ping'an handed over all the financial power in his hands to Mu Yuling. This kind of thing, or to hand over to his wife is the most assured, before Hong Fatzi also served as Zhu Ping'an's quartermaster, although his person is vulgar, but he is more skilled and proficient in arithmetic, so he is used as a deputy, assisting Saki Yuling in charge of Dengzhou finances. Zhu Ping'an's source of income is the trade zone, as the largest shareholder at the same time, it is also the proprietor behind the largest business in the trade zone. Around him, Shandong merchants also became the staunchest supporters, and gradually gathered around him, including Shandong officials represented by Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu.

The construction of the new army was in full swing, and López and Goethe successively hired some officers from European countries to join the new army, and the most advanced tactics of combining firearms and cold weapons in European countries gradually penetrated into the training of the new army. Not only the new army, but even the four guards of Dengzhou began to gradually learn this tactic.

The dog-lock musket and the flintlock pistol developed by Bi Maokang, which López painstakingly obtained, as well as the craftsmen of the War Department of the Ministry of War, sent by Wang Chengen, played a great role. Although the design of the dog lock gun is advanced, the structure is complex, the cost is quite high, and the maintenance is not easy, which requires the Ming craftsmen to gradually improve according to the design of Bi Maokang, and apply the definition of the flintlock gun to the dog lock gun. The trigger also came into being, which made Zhu Ping'an admire the creativity of the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty, science is like this, only a small idea and hint can be taken a big step forward.

Of course, at present, the musket system of the Ming Dynasty is still handmade, which is far from meeting the needs of the war, and many basic industrial equipment and facilities have not yet been applied, so Zhu Ping'an used Lautoz to gradually introduce lathes and other equipment that have been put into use in Europe, so as to promote the innovation of Dengzhou's military industry. This can only be done step by step, and it is absolutely impossible to eat a fat man in one bite.

By the way, Zhu Ping'an also instilled the concept of rifling and mini bullets into the craftsmen, and I believe that in the near future, the craftsmen will definitely be able to turn it into reality. At this point, Zhu Ping'an considered himself a layman, although he was shocked by the craftsmen, he knew that he was just taking a shortcut.

The improvement of the artillery was all handed over to the Sun Heding brothers and Zhang Tao and others who came later, who were the first daimyo to receive advanced artillery knowledge, and they had a fanaticism and obsession with the casting of artillery that others could not understand. With the level of craftsmanship of the Ming Dynasty, there is absolutely no problem in imitating the Francophone and red-coated cannons, but what Zhu Ping'an proposed is a cannon that is conducive to field use and has a fast moving speed, which is the most important. For example, the miniature version of the conscienceless cannon used at the beginning, that is, the most primitive mortar, etc., the Tiger Squat Cannon of the Ming Dynasty can be improved according to this type and become a sharp weapon for the infantry.

A qiē is in an orderly manner, but there are also some changes and obstacles, just when Zhu Ping'an was thinking about it, Yin Shigang got the news and hurriedly came to Zhu Ping'an's side.

"Dashuai, the convoy of Qixiang Merchant was robbed in Laizhou, this is the fourth evil case against Dengzhou businessmen this month!" R1152