Beginning in February, the manufacture of the finalized flintlock pistol began, and the new gun canceled the yin-yang machine of the combined gun, and directly hit the steel sickle of the fire door with a flint, and at the same time ignited the primer, greatly reducing the number of parts. In the winter, the weapons workshop and the test site began to be relocated to Wendeng Camp one after another, and Liu Minyou bought some ripe fields near the river at a high price, and built many hydraulic machinery along the Baolong River, mainly hydraulic drill pipes and water hammers, which were used for muskets and armor pieces respectively.

The flintlock pistol still did not solve the problem of combining with the bayonet, it all depended on skilled workers and luck, and each thousand headquarters added two blacksmiths to slowly transform and polish, when the first batch of three hundred flintlock pistols were equipped, only forty could be loaded with bayonets, Chen Xin equipped them all to a separate firearms detachment, and each thousand headquarters could only replace the arquebus with a flintlock pistol, and still carried a waist knife on their bodies.

The first batch of four four-pounder guns was also equipped with the 1,000th headquarters, the artillery of each department were drawn to learn, each gun was equipped with four horses, a total of four gunners, the ammunition car was loaded with a base of dozens of ammunition, the ammunition car was hung with artillery, all the loading equipment was placed on the gun truck, two people sat on the ammunition car when maneuvering, two people rode horses, different from the general Ming army cannon, the gun body can also be installed with a wooden guard, similar to the modern field artillery, at close range can cover the gunner to meet the enemy.

With the arrival of the new equipment, all units began to train in accordance with the improved drill of the test team, and the assessment objectives were also changed; the firearms team's firing speed requirements were three times the original, with 50 rounds of live-fire training per month, 200 rounds of non-ammunition training, and thousands of empty gun training rounds; the queue of the firearms team became more compact; each firearms flag team had four squads, no longer arranged in four rows as before, but merged into two dense rows, the same length as the original team, and the flag captain directly commanded the salvo.

The peasant and soldier system was gradually improved, forming its own drill and training requirements, when the winter was the coldest time, many new homeless people were also organized to do basic training, and the Wendeng battalion still retained the elimination and exchange system of peasant soldiers and soldiers, because of the huge difference in treatment, the peasants and soldiers were looking forward to entering the war barracks, and some soldiers with excellent skills also appeared, which created pressure on the soldiers, so that many soldiers even dreamed of practicing loading.

Chen Xin's sailor was automatically ignored by Sun Yuanhua, when the water camp was established, the emperor did not send a message to pay the soldiers, Sun Yuanhua reluctantly gave some old ships, there were originally a total of fourteen ships, and there were five or six small merchant ships, at the end of January Xu Xinsu sent two No. 2 lucky ships, which greatly enhanced the strength of the sailors. After the arrival of the five Macao mercenaries, they began to introduce some equipment from Western warships, such as pulleys and pulley sets that had been widely used in the West, and pulleys were also used by the Fujian and Guangdong sailors at this time, which improved the technical level of the sailors.

The artillery workshop made twenty six-pounder iron naval guns in one winter, which belonged to the Western eagle cannon type, and only four were qualified, which was still in the case of having a technician from the Macao Artillery Factory, and Sun Yuanhua of Dengzhou was slightly better, and it is said that six or seven guns were made, basically between nine and twelve pounds, which belonged to the type of half-snake gun, plus the heavy artillery brought by the Franco, Dengzhou's Hongyi heavy artillery had about twenty.

According to the model of the army, Chen Xin began to ask the sailor to improve the drill code, Scar is an old pirate, and he basically understands everything on the ship, and the water battalion asked seven young people from the literacy class to start compiling the military discipline and drill code of the sailor.

At present, they are only required to be able to beat merchant ships, intercept and inspect cao ships and smuggling ships in peacetime, and are mainly used to deliver troops in wartime, and the current 16 ships can deliver troops at a time, but if they carry cavalry and supplies at the same time, they can only reach half, and there is still a big gap between Chen Xin's goal of sending 3,000 people at a time, and there is not enough force projection capacity, and there is not enough influence on the Liaohai periphery. In addition to continuing to buy from Fujian, Chen Xin continued to apply with Sun Yuanhua, and there were results for the time being.

After the beginning of the year, these sailors will also be used to transport tobacco to Jiangnan and along the canal, and the number of ships going to Japan in May will increase to three, which is also the maximum limit that Li Guozhu gave to Chen Xin. Therefore, Chen Xin's use of sailors is basically half military and half business.

Liu Minyou's civil affairs system continued to occupy an area in Wendeng, and at present there were nine tunpus, with more than 40,000 mu of land, and Liu Minyou only occupied 12,000 mu of the newly cleared 20,000 mu of wasteland.

The civil workshop has been able to provide the main clothes and farm tools, and solved the work of a group of craftsmen, they used the iron mold method commonly used in the Ming Dynasty to cast iron agricultural tools, not only to meet the needs of the Tunpu, but also to the surrounding households, because the price is lower than that of other places, so that the iron shop in Wendeng began to come to the workshop to purchase.

Another important work he is responsible for is education, there are basically no scholars in Wendeng Camp, almost all of them are Liu Min's literacy classes slowly expanded, and then the first batch became teachers, and gradually cultivated their own team, only teaching common words and accounting, etc., Chen Xin and Liu Min have seen more of those gentry's actions, and are unwilling to mix with them, they have never felt that Wendeng Camp needs scholars as pillars, nor do they want similar groups of people to appear in their own system, they hope to pass these literacy classes, so that craftsmen, Soldiers and management institutions became the backbone of the Wenden Battalion, forming the cultural and social structure of the Wenden Battalion itself. After Liu Minyou's battle of King Qin and his trip to Jiangnan, he also began to instill a sense of honor and loyalty to Wendeng Camp in the literacy class.

The first batch of 300,000 packs of tobacco was loaded on 3 February and shipped to Tianjin and Linqing, and the subsequent cigarettes also continued to be produced; the cigarette factory in Jinghai used wooden clippers to make cigarettes, four cigarettes at a time, and at present the cigarette factory produces 120,000 cigarettes a day, and the hand-cranked cigarette machine in the workshop is doing a perfect job; if the hand-cranked cigarette machine is used, under normal circumstances, the most skilled team members can produce 12,000 cigarettes in one hour.

Wendeng camp is a thriving scene, all over the big merchants selling tobacco, paper, iron, nitrate, paint, cloth and other raw materials began to pay attention to Wendeng, many of them have an official background, they first found Dengzhou, through some officials in Dengzhou introduced to Wendengying, hoping to obtain the priority of procurement, so that the people who meet Liu Minyou and Chen Xin often line up, including many Dengzhou adults their own relatives, Liu Minyou naturally will not buy from a single family, really can't erase it, just buy a little more.

On the 10th day of the first month of February, Chen Xin finished arranging the army's training plan, took a small merchant ship, and took Song Wenxian to Dengzhou, with Zhou Shifa and Zhang Dahui, he was still ready to ask Sun Yuanhua for things on this trip, first of all, food, Sun Yuanhua only gave him a salary last year, but he did not say, Chen Xin planned to ask for some, and the other is ships, artillery, horses, etc., these things are not paid attention to, and there will always be some when they open. By the way, he asked the merchant ship to send Zhang Dahui and the others back to Beijing, and he would take a few people from the intelligence bureau to establish the Jingshi intelligence station, and the people from the Guanning intelligence station had already taken a passing merchant ship alone on the road in January.

Five days later, the ship arrived in Dengzhou, and the merchant ship arrived at the water gate through Half Moon Bay, Chen Xin took Zhou Shifa to stand at the bow of the boat, and the two slowed down by boat, carefully looking at the shape of the water city, Chen Xin came to the water city several times, but did not stop more, this time it was more careful than before, even Song Wenxian felt a little strange, but he knew the truth of his subordinates very well, and he did not come to eavesdrop.

Zhou Shifa pointed to the Pingdu official on the east side of the water city and asked in a low voice: "My lord, if there is a Hongyi cannon in this place outside the city wall, if the water choke can be controlled by my sailor, if my sailor enters from the water gate, the faction should control this place to avoid damage." ”

Chen Xin nodded, in front of them is the overpass, on the east side is the Pingdu official there is facing the water gate, the overpass is a tall stone arch bridge, the water city is divided into two parts, north and south, the north port ships to the south, must pass through the bridge under the overpass, is another main road in the water city.

Chen Xin said to Zhou Shifa: "We are just preparing, but Dengzhou is an important town in Liaohai, in case Jiannu comes to sneak attack, it is also possible, so the important places inside and outside the city must be investigated clearly, be prepared, all the important places in Dengzhou are important to Shuicheng, and the sailors stationed here are mainly locals in Dengzhou, and the intelligence station must grasp the addresses, family members, and preferences of the main officials, and make friends as much as possible, but don't attract too much attention." ”

Zhou Shifa agreed in a low voice, he didn't really understand the reason why Chen Xin did this, and he didn't believe that Jiannu could attack Dengzhou across the sea, but only completed the work as required.

Chen Xin continued: "The garrison and guerrilla of the sailor must be well acquainted, it turns out that Mr. Song has a way to do this, I will let Mr. Song cooperate with you, your task is to set up more strongholds in the city, once there is any rumor, you must be able to hide more than 200 people in the city, if necessary, control the situation in the water city, the sea side must ensure unobstructed, and the Zhenyang Gate in the south is best to control it." Chen Xinzhi pointed in the direction of Penglai Pavilion, "At the very least, you must control Zhan Danya Mountain, and in case of emergency, you can destroy the overpass and block the enemy's attack." On the mountain, we can use four-pounder guns to hit most of the targets in the water city, and cover our army to land and assemble on the west side. ”

Zhou Shifa used charcoal to write down in code words by himself, at this time they were passing under the overpass, Zhou Shifa looked carefully at the arch of the bridge, looking for a place to place the gunpowder, and after a while, the hull of the ship emerged from under the bridge again, and entered the southern port of the water city, Zhou Shifa looked at the east and said: "My lord, the officials of the water division are all in the southeast corner, and the subordinates still think that it is best to control the zhì Zhenyang Gate, and the granaries and arsenals in the water city are very complete, which can be used by our officers and soldiers, so as to avoid the pain of replenishment at sea." ”

Zhou Shifa pointed to the north and said: "And Zhenyang Gate is facing the Zhenhai Gate of Dengzhou Prefecture, and the city cannons can bombard the city wall of the state city, and my army starts from Zhenyang Gate, and can quickly enter the state city through Zhenhai Gate, so Zhenhai Gate and Water City are generally important, as long as Shuicheng and Zhenhaimen are in the hands of my Wendeng camp, even if thousands of Jiannu are built, it is difficult to stop my Wendeng camp with all their strength, just like the battle of Luanzhou, so my subordinates believe that the weight of Dengzhen is in Shuicheng, and the weight of Dengzhou is in Zhenhaimen, both of which are indispensable. ”

Chen Xin looked at Zhou Shifa and said approvingly: "Shifa really put his mind into it, Dengzhou is in his chest, Zhenhaimen is really important, the situation of the generals and battalions guarding the gate must be in the control of the Intelligence Bureau, and the strongholds we have laid must also focus on Zhenhaimen." Chen Xin asked: "How are you currently referring to the terrain in the state city?" ”

"In terms of the city, Dengzhou is different from Luanzhou, the water system in the city is vertical and horizontal, and bridges are needed everywhere, the book bridge between the Dragon King Palace and the Wenchang Temple is the most important, and the control of this bridge will cut off the east-west traffic in Dengzhou City, just like the crossroads of Luanzhou. In other places, there are also the grass bridge on Zhenhaimen Street, the Dengzhou Bridge in the north of the city, the Zuoji Bridge in Chunshengmen Street, and the Sefen Bridge in the east of the city. ”

Chen Xin was a little impressed by Zhou Shifa after hearing this, but he didn't expect that he still had a bit of tactical vision, at least he knew how to study the terrain, and it seemed that he would need to be present when he held combat meetings in the future.

Zhou Shifa saw Chen Xin looking at him, and said with a smile: "It's not that Han Bin who was killed back then, I have seen the surrounding terrain many times, and my subordinates have visited it many times after they went back, and they are familiar with the terrain in Dengzhou City." ”

Chen Xin sighed and said: "Han Bin, if you don't say that I almost forgot about this person, I think that when I was on the boat, he still showed me my face at any time, but now I am afraid that it will become a pile of white bones." ”

Zhou Shifa didn't know whether Chen Xin was emotionally or what, he didn't dare to answer, the boat quickly docked, put down a few people, Chen Xin habitually waved goodbye to Zhang Dahui and others on the boat, which made Zhang Dada and others confused.

They went out of Zhenyang Gate, to the governor's yamen to meet Sun Yuanhua, after a clerk reported, led them to the second hall, to Sun Yuanhua's main hall, just Sun Yuanhua sent a person to the door, the person was wearing a four-grade civil official uniform, Chen Xin had not seen it, he hurriedly wanted to meet Sun Yuanhua, Sun Yuanhua saw Chen Xin with a smile on his face, and held his hand to stop him from kneeling.

Sun Yuanhua said to the civil official: "Liangfu, although we are all baptized people, but after all, the customs of Middle Earth and Western countries are very different, we from its 'fear of heaven and love' essence, get its 'clear things Chalun' good law, as for the seven grams of said, it may not be all the same, even if the release family, there are also laymen, do not eat fast may not have no Buddha in the heart, if you divorce the concubine like this, others do not understand the inside story, and think that her name is at a loss, let her go where to make a living, and Shen's temperament is strong, if you can't think about it for a while, you miss your life, isn't it against it' Fear the sky and love others'. ”

The man named Liangfu looked sad, and did not understand it because of Sun Yuanhua's persuasion, Chen Xin was confused, he knew that Sun Yuanhua and Zhang Tao were both Catholics, and the last time he came to Wendeng to inspect, the prayer before dinner made the other officers in Wendeng's camp almost drop their jaws, and it sounded that this Liangfu in front of him seemed to be also a Catholic, and there seemed to be some knot in his heart that had not been untied.

Sun Yuanhua didn't say much in front of outsiders, and introduced Liangfu: "This is the world-famous Wendeng Camp Chen Shen General." ”

Na Liangfu nodded, although he was of low grade, but after all, he was a civil official, and there was no reason to salute the military attaché.

Sun Yuanhua then introduced to Chen Xin: "This is my friend, the new Liaohai Supervisor of the Military Dao, Wang Zheng. ”