In Tianjin, three shocks a day.

The guard commander made three steps and one post outside the yamen, and five steps and one sentry. The fans patrolling the streets carried waist knives and went around to arrest the so-called anti-thieves and spies like vicious gods. Outside the yamen, a series of booms were erected, and there were already a number of rumor-mongering corpses of 'spies' who spied on military planes. The corpses floating in the wind make people look at them and feel terrified.

In the main hall in the yamen, all the generals from all over the North Zhili held their breath and stood still. There was a man sitting in the hall who was scolding angrily: "You usually embezzle soldiers' salaries and rampant soldiers; In wartime, he fears the enemy like a tiger and shirks his ways. One by one, they don't want to serve the country, and they are in vain to disappoint the king's grace, what use do you want? Come on, drag this waste down and cut it down! ”

There were seven or eight local generals in Tianjin, who had already taken off their helmets at this moment, tied up their buns, and knelt like zongzi. Hearing that the people in the hall were about to be beheaded, the generals in the hall begged for mercy and cried one by one, but they were quickly dragged out by the sergeants waiting outside the hall. After a while, a few bloody human heads came up, and the fishy smell diffused, scaring the other generals in the hall enough.

Marco's father-in-law sat in the corner of the hall and watched this scene coldly, with no sorrow or joy in his heart, like a dry well. He had already anticipated the current situation, and he was well aware of the shortcomings of the current Ming army - there was no way to cheer up without cutting off a few heads, so he could stimulate those lazy and incompetent guys.

Sitting in the hall was Xue Sancai, the governor of Jiliao, who was going to be relocated to the secretary of the military department next month, but because of Zhou Qingfeng's attack, he picked up such a hot potato. Now, three days after the 'revolutionary army' landed, the invasion was like fire, a large number of towns east of Tianjin had fallen, and countless officials and gentry had been killed. The situation was so bad that Xue Sancai was already roasted on the fire, forcing him to come to Tianjin in person to abbot the overall situation.

It's just that Tianjin has not suffered any military disasters for more than 200 years, and the dispersion of armaments is much more serious than that of the border passes. Military households are good at farming, and generals are good at business, but it is really not good to talk about war.

Xue San arrived in Tianjin and immediately checked how many troops had been gathered in Tianjin. As a result, it was okay not to check, but after checking, I found that there were no soldiers here in Tianjin. forced the dignified governor of Jiliao to hurriedly transfer troops from Baoding, Miyun, and Changping. A few who have just been dragged out and beheaded, including Tianjin Bingbeidao, who was used as a scapegoat.

Waiting for this person's head to be cut off, the other generals in the main hall were much more stable. In the future, all the sewage will be poured on the heads of the dead, and they will never be found again. Seeing everyone's calm demeanor, and even their faces were happy, Ma Gonggong, who was watching coldly, couldn't help but laugh secretly - these stupid talents, when disaster came, they still didn't know whether to live or die.

The real trouble has just begun.

Speaking of the impending disaster, Ma Gonggong couldn't help but look at Liu Fucheng, a thousand households in brocade clothes sitting opposite him. This slippery head, who has traveled widely and has deep connections, also fell into bad luck this time. He backed Zheng Guifei in the palace, contacted the 'revolutionary army' to do business, and sold military funds to make a lot of money. But within a few months of being proud, Zhou Qingfeng led the troops and immediately beat him out of the prototype.

No matter how slippery you are, there are thousands of means, but if you encounter a more ruthless, blacker and shameless person, it can only be suppressed-seeing Liu Fucheng's bad luck, Ma Gonggong's heart is actually dark.

That's right.

This female apprentice of Liu Qianhu is also a meat bun and a dog, and she has never come back since she went to Jinzhou. The maid he gave to Zhou Qingfeng became like a general under the other party, not to mention that her strength had skyrocketed. The ghost woman turned around and killed the gentry, which was called a ruthless person, and at first glance, she was in a hurry to show her loyalty. There are countless people in Tianjin who hate his enemies.

Liu Fucheng sat opposite Ma Keshi, glanced at Ma Gonggong and lowered his head. He was really embarrassed this time. After Zhou Qingfeng landed, he also deliberately sent people to contact him, hoping to reminisce about the old and build a relationship, and turn bad things into good things. Or contact Yuan Qingying or even Ye Na.

Who knew that Zhou Qingfeng would not recognize anyone after eating and wiping his face, and shook out the fact that he sent someone to Jinzhou to steal secrets, and ridiculed him as a traitor, who deserved to be teased by himself. Liu Fu became angry and annoyed, and his heart burned with hatred, but there was nothing he could do.

But if you want to say that it is uncomfortable, Xue Sancai and Xue Dudu, who are sitting in the hall, are really uncomfortable.

Zhou Qingfeng's troops sent to Tianjin, which was really a ruthless blow to the Ming Dynasty. This is much more ferocious than Nurhachi's fight from Liaodong. From Tianjin to the capital, it is a flat river, and there is no danger to defend at all. In addition, Tianjin is stuck in the north's Caoyun, if this place is not recaptured, the Daming rivers and mountains in the north will collapse immediately.

Just this blow immediately showed that Zhou Qingfeng's danger was more than a hundred times greater than that of the wild boar skin - according to normal history, the wild boar skin took the Liaodong Peninsula very early and controlled Lushun. But from beginning to end, he will only attack from Jinzhou and Shanhaiguan. Later, Huang Taiji opened his mind, and at most detoured to Mongolia. They had never considered the shortcut from the sea to Tianjin.

Hearing that Tianjin was in danger, Emperor Wanli, who was hiding in the deep palace, couldn't sit still, and repeatedly ordered Xue Sancai, the governor of Jiliao, to exterminate this group of bold thieves. When Xue San arrived in Tianjin, he found that the situation was even worse than he had imagined.

In order to recover Liaodong, the whole country transferred troops to Jinzhou to be under the command of Yang Hao. Even the soldiers from Sichuan went, and the soldiers from Beizhili were also drawn a lot. Tianjin and other places just happened to guard against emptiness, but they encountered Zhou Qingfeng, who did not play cards according to common sense, and killed him by sea.

This trick is really ruthless.

Xue Sancai found that he had no soldiers available, and no generals could be adjusted. He searched for soldiers everywhere, and waited until the sixth day of Zhou Qingfeng's landing to gather more than 10,000 people from Jizhou, Zunhua, Baoding and other places. With such a number of people, Xue Dudu finally has the confidence to fight a good battle. He decided to send troops the next day to take down the Zhou rebels who stayed at Dagukou.

On the fifth day of landing, Zhou Qingfeng also waited for the backup fleet he was looking forward to. These are a full 5,000 Liaodong militia members who have received initial training, and they are much stronger in organization and discipline than the migrant workers recruited by the Commerce and Trade Section from Tianjin. Leading the team was Yin Hu, the only minister of education who was available in the 'revolutionary army', who had become the captain of the firefight.

In the second fleet, the most striking is the 500-ton barge, which has just been built and launched. The carrying capacity of this ship is more than double that of the 2,000 material transport ship of the current Ming Army's naval division. Although Zhou Qingfeng felt that 500 tons could only be called a boat, in the eyes of the locals in Tianjin, this big ship was already shocking.

"How did you get this barge?" Zhou Qingfeng originally approved the construction of the unpowered barge to transport coal between Lushun and Longkou in Shandong. The distance between the two places is less than 100 nautical miles, and it can be dragged by a sailboat.

"After half a year of training, the number and capacity of the mechanics in the machinery factory have increased significantly. Zhao Ze arranged for someone to install a 100-horsepower steam engine at the stern, and he built a complete set of transmission shafts and propellers with his own hands.

Although there were many breakdowns along the way, the ship ran quite fast. Yin Hu said, "As long as we accumulate more technology and train more technicians, we should be able to use a formal steam-powered ship within a year." The tonnage of shipbuilding can be stabilized at about 500 to 800 tons. ”

Only then did Zhou Qingfeng notice that there was a chimney erected in the stern of the barge. Since the ship had already docked, the steam engine stopped working, which made this epoch-making ship seem unremarkable. But the 'revolutionary army' drove a big ship without sails and oars, and it could walk on its own with black smoke. The news spread quickly on the docks of the port.

Limited to the discipline of the docks, there are not many people who come to see the excitement. But there would always be a couple of dock laborers looking out from afar, as if they had seen something extraordinary. When Zhou Qingfeng saw this boat, he immediately pondered, "This boat should be able to sail into the Haihe River, right?" ”

"No problem at all." Yin Hu said. The 500-ton ship is not very big, and the barge is even more flat-bottomed and specially used to run inland rivers, and the navigation performance is very good.

"It's good to be able to enter the Haihe River, I just have a plan." Zhou Qingfeng nodded, and he asked again, "In addition to getting the No. 5,000 militia this time, what else did you bring me?" I told Zhao Ze before that he should hurry up and get artillery. Did he start at all? ”

"Without a boring machine, what kind of artillery?"

"Isn't there some iron molded cannon? It is said to be fast and good. ”

Zhao Ze said that he had already considered the iron mold casting cannon. But iron mold casting is better than clay mold casting, and it is not an advanced technology. If the iron mold conducts heat too quickly, it will cause the cast gun material to become extremely brittle and hard white iron. This is an extremely serious flaw that can easily explode.

Zhao Ze is engaged in sand mold casting, but he doesn't know how to cast mechanically, and he is still groping. He is currently commanding on the front line in Gaizhou, and he has no time to guide this matter at all. At present, we can only gather a group of young technicians and send them information to figure it out for themselves. Whether you succeed or not depends on luck. ”

Zhou Qingfeng knew that 'iron mold casting' was still due to junior high school history books, and he really didn't know that in essence, the 'iron mold casting' technology was backward at the moment it was invented. At that time, the West had already begun to use the more practical form of sand mold casting. But what the sand mold looks like, Zhao Ze, a halfway monk, is not clear at all.

Considering that the muskets have begun to be equipped, and the artillery has been difficult to deliver, Zhou Qingfeng is not happy. He asked, "If there is no artillery, is there anything else good?" ”

"There's nothing special about it, but there are temporary ones to make do."

"What?"

"Explosives pack projectile ballista."

It sounds weird, and it looks weird.

There were more than two dozen of them on a five-hundred-ton barge. When the waterproof tarpaulin is removed, the ballista gun carriage underneath is revealed. This thing is about 1.5 meters tall, weighs more than 100 kilograms, and can be carried by wheels, which can be pulled by a horse. Zhou Qingfeng only needed to see why he made this thing - this ballista was basically made of wood, and there were very few metal parts.

The 'revolutionary army' currently has a large number of carpenters, and the ability to process wood is already very strong. As long as the design is sent in, the carpenters themselves can make the thing. Coupled with the fact that the rivers began to thaw in the spring and hydraulic machinery began to be used again, it was very easy to build such an all-wooden ordnance.

Yin Hu introduced: "Since spring plowing requires a large number of metal farming tools, all the iron we exchanged for the first stage at the beginning of the year was used to make hoes and iron plows. After all, farming is the only way to ensure that we have enough food and stabilize our regime. You also know that we are short of iron and coal, so we can use wood as much as possible. ”

For the 'revolutionary army', spring ploughing is as important as fighting. If the spring ploughing is not done well, the hundreds of thousands of people on the Liaodong Peninsula will immediately rebel against the 'revolutionary army'.

Zhou Qingfeng nodded, and asked helplessly, "How far can this thing hit?" ”

"We used cow tendons as torsion springs to create two types of ballistas, light and heavy. The light ones can maneuver with the army, and can throw up to 3 kilograms of explosives at a distance of 500 meters, with an effective range of 150 meters. Heavy ones are used to arm positions, so it is inconvenient to move, but they can throw ten kilograms of explosives to a distance of 300 meters.

There are a lot of disadvantages to this thing. First of all, the accuracy is not good, and the accuracy is not very good. In addition, it cannot be used on rainy days, and the beef tendon will be scrapped when it is damp. It must also be corrected after a period of use, otherwise the torsion spring will fail. Yin Hu said, "In the end, there is a very bad place, that is, the utilization efficiency of black powder is too poor. Explosives packs are actually very poor. ”

The explosive pack is good for blasting, but the effect of blowing people is not as great as its effect of scaring people. Zhou Qingfeng nodded and said, "Okay, although it's not as good as artillery, it can barely be used." With an effective range of 150 meters, and the ability to maneuver with the army, this temporary makeshift thing is enough. ”