Since Descartes converted to the Ming Dynasty, in just a few months, he has indeed made some gadgets for the Ming Dynasty. Hips

It can be said that the introduction of exotic catfish and the promotion of scientific research competition have had an immediate effect.

Other things are still relatively slow to take effect, and the most direct application is that Descartes went to the Purple Mountain Observatory and the Meteorological Observatory for a few months to conduct scientific research and research, and helped Zhu Shuren to propose a telescope improvement plan, which improved some performance in all aspects, and also helped Daming make some adjustments in the miniaturization and improvement of the telescope.

By chance, perhaps it was because he learned that the Ming Dynasty might need to go to war with the nomadic barbarians in the north again at any time to recover some of the fallen homeland, and the military pressure was relatively great. In addition, Descartes accidentally discovered that Daming actually had advanced rifled precision sniper rifles that were not available in Europe.

Then Descartes used his ingenuity to make some adjustments to the latest miniaturized telescope that he had improved, and made the world's first riflescope.

Descartes also had some ballistics research discussions with his counterparts on the Ming side.

In this era, the ballistics of artillery in the West was still very primitive, and as for musketeers, there was no ballistics at all, and there was no calibration of firearms before actual aiming.

The Ming Dynasty already had an early foundation in artillery ballistics, which shocked Descartes. Hips

After the shock, Descartes used his mathematical genius to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses with Ming scholars and craftsmen. I thought of carving a rangefinder line on the scope and calculating how much muzzle angle needed to be raised depending on the firing distance.

In addition, inspired by each other, the rifled rifle should be pre-calibrated before going to the battlefield, and a set of operating specifications have also been sorted out, and trial and error have been done.

These small improvements did not help the vast majority of Ming riflemen who were still using the "Wuchang-made" smoothbore guns, and the smoothbore riflemen were not yet a precision strike force.

However, the improvement of the combat power of the artillery and rifled gun snipers of the Ming Dynasty was immediate, and when the Ming and the Puppet Qing went to war again, there would undoubtedly be some more chances of victory.

……

Moreover, Descartes and Janssen Tasmann did not all come alone to cast for Daming. When Descartes was in the Netherlands, he was also a top scholar, and there were many apprentices below. Janssen Tasman has been a local explorer for many years, and there are also some capable subordinates.

This time, they all brought a team, more or less mastered some supporting skills, and after communicating with the Ming craftsmen and scholars, they could do more. Hips

In just a few months, under the leadership of Song Yingxing, the Daming Academy of Sciences has implemented this combing work well.

After sorting, it was found that the Dutch team could help Daming quickly improve and make up for shortcomings in at least the following aspects.

The first is shipbuilding technology.

It's not that the enlarged version of the Fu boat and sand boat originally used by Daming is not easy to use. Daming is still very good in every subdivision of shipbuilding, such as watertight compartments.

Fu ships and sand boats are indeed the most suitable types of ships for offshore navigation in China.

But I also have to admit that many ship types in the West do have advantages in ocean exploration and trade, and the Dutch have been sea coachmen for more than half a century, and they still have their own accumulation of the kind that pressed and beat the original overlord Spain.

This establishment has attracted a group of Dutch science and technology, shipbuilding, and exploration talents, at least enriched Daming's shipbuilding capabilities, and unlocked many new ship types. Hips

Since then, the Ming Dynasty has also been able to slowly explore how to build a "three-layer gun deck Galen battleship" and "Manila-type ocean-going Galen merchant ship".

Moreover, Zhu Shuren was also very concerned about shipbuilding and navigation, and visited and called on the teams of Descartes and Janssen Tasmann many times during this period.

Although he didn't know how to build a ship, he knew the general trend of historical development, and he had played a similar game for an unknown number of generations before he crossed over. Therefore, Zhu Shuren is of course well aware of the question of "after the elimination of the Galen sailboat, what type of ship should be more advantageous in history".

Therefore, at an opportune time, he put forward the following observations:

One of the biggest advantages of the Galen ship over its predecessor Carrak/Caravel is the elimination of the towering bow tower, the reduction of the center of gravity and the reduction of drag, the improvement of seaworthiness, and the increase of displacement utilization and effective cargo capacity - however, this improvement is not complete enough.

Because the Galen ship still retains its tall stern in order to cope with a certain degree of melee combat, to prevent broadside jumping, and to engage in fire-to-fire within the range of the musket. This thing is still unfavorable for the center of gravity, seaworthiness, and tonnage utilization.

Previously, this design had to be retained, but the range of the cannon was not far enough, and the warships of both sides often approached to within 100 paces during the battle, and even took the gang. Hips

There is a tall stern, at least so that when the muskets are fired, it will be as difficult for the opponent to attack the city as it is on their backs. It is even more difficult to rush up to the stern from the deck when slashing and slashing.

However, now that artillery technology has been improved every few years, the metallurgy and cannon casting technology of the Ming Dynasty have made Descartes shudder after watching the live-fire experiment.

With this new cannon, the possibility of close-range white-knuckle combat and even musket shooting in the future has been infinitely close to zero, so there is no need for a cumbersome stern! You can try to make it as flat as possible!

So, under the combination of the original ready-made drawings of the Dutch and the new needs of the Zhu Shuren, they came up with the 18th-century sail battleship - the design level is roughly equivalent to the level between the Seven Years' War and the Napoleonic Wars in Europe.

After all, the cannons cast by Zhu Shuren have reached the technological content of the end of the 18th century, and there is no reason why the ships he built cannot match!

With the sail battleship, the ocean-going light ships can also be closer to the 18th-century sail frigate. In the end, only clippers for ocean-going expeditions and heavy trades remained, which would be a little more troublesome.

But Zhu Shuren estimates that if you give Descartes and the Tasman team five to ten years, you can also drum it up, anyway, there is no need to rush these things, it is just an idle move for the long-term peace and stability of the Ming Dynasty in the future, and the ocean-going navy is not needed to fight Tartar at the moment. Hips

Not even a Fu Boat Sailor is needed, only the Shen family's own Sand Boat Sailor is enough to be the king and hegemon in the Yellow Sea.

The shipbuilding technology of the Dutch is equivalent to being directly connected to the team by Zhu Shuren, digested, absorbed, and then integrated and upgraded.

……

In addition to shipbuilding, there are also one or two other aspects of technology brought by the Dutch that are worthy of immediate reference from the Ming Dynasty.

One is the Western-style construction method of traffic road infrastructure, and the other is the construction technology of the upgraded version of the Star Fortress.

After all, Europeans are still a bit unique in the field of infrastructure. In terms of road construction in ancient times, although there was a Qin straight road, the road and bridge projects of later dynasties were still relatively natural. Although the West also lagged behind in Roman road and bridge technology after the fall of the Roman Empire, in the late Age of Discovery, it gradually surpassed the Ming Dynasty that allowed natural development.

Therefore, it is also beneficial to learn a little engineering technology of building bridges and roads from Europeans, and to learn from each other in combination with Chinese and Western styles, as for how to build a house, there is no need to learn too much, after all, the difference between Chinese and Western architectural ideas is too great, and it can only be a slight partial reference. Hips

As for the construction of military fortresses, the Netherlands is the birthplace of fortresses after all, and there is still a certain amount of research on the new methods of attacking and defending cities after the popularization of heavy artillery.

In addition, the Europeans had just finished fighting the Thirty Years' War, and in the Thirty Years' War, they had built many fortresses and fought many high-density sieges on the land of Germany, France, Italy and Austria, so the intensity of confrontation between the attacking and defending sides against the artillery siege and the artillery defense was constantly improving.

In contrast, Daming can only rely on the foresight of Zhu Shuren alone, although he has also built some fortress-transformed cities and fortresses.

But because the enemy's ability to attack the fortification was too weak, none of the puppet Qing and Li Zicheng on the opposite side could fight. Since the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, in the eight years since then, although there are still many provincial-level fortified cities on the Ming side that have been breached, none of them have been directly guarded by the troops under the command of Zhu Shuren. Those who lost were the pots of the old Ming army commanded by others, and they were too unable to fight.

All the Huguang Army of Zhu Shuren's lineage, as well as the core cities defended by the Xinming Army after the reorganization, have been broken so far, and the record is still zero.

The enemy is too unable to fight, and the Ming army will not be able to gradually escalate and summarize the experience of defending the city in the confrontation.

As an aside, perhaps Zhu Shuren's move to poach the French scientist Descartes this time, as well as bringing a bunch of his students and disciples, had a profound impact on the attraction of scientific and military engineering talents in France and the Netherlands. Hips

Because the legend that Descartes mixed well in the Ming Dynasty will eventually play a demonstration effect of "a thousand golden city bones" and "King Yan Zhao built a golden platform", so that a group of people who are not good at mixing in France and Dutch but have real talent and whimsical ideas are ready to move.

In the following ten years, Zhu Shuren let the ocean-going businessmen trained by Janssen Tasman run several ocean routes to France and the Netherlands, basically one round trip every three years, and three trips in ten years, each time helping Zhu Shuren get back dozens or even hundreds of useful talent teams from Europe.

In the third year after Descartes came to China, and when the Janssen Tasmann fleet brought talents to China for the second time, Zhu Shuren found a very talented French siege artillery technical officer in his early twenties, named Vauban - there is no doubt that he is the French Marshal Vauban who later invented the Vauban siege method in history.

Historically, Vauban should have been after the end of the Thirty Years' War and continued in the French civil war that began in 1648, helping the Prince of Condé to conquer the city and be promoted one by one.

In the history of Vaubana, 33 new star castles were built in his lifetime, and no one else could capture them. And he himself has captured 53 old-fashioned fortresses of the enemy in his life, and he can be called the number one master of attacking/defending cities in Europe in the era of fortresses, and he is definitely the first person in the world to use heavy artillery to attack and defend cities.

It is estimated that in the future during the 70 years of the reign of the "Sun King" Louis XIV, the rise of the French will also be discounted to a certain extent, which can be regarded as a butterfly effect.

…… Hips

Sights and other ballistics and sighting technologies have made rapid progress, and there has also been considerable progress in shipbuilding, city building, and road building technology.

Even those who did not support Zhu Shuren in establishing an academy of sciences at the beginning, and did not support him in building so many research institutes, botanical and botanical gardens, museums, observatories, and meteorological observatories outside Nanjing...... The corrupt Confucian, who feels that he has worked hard and hurt his money, has to admit that the prince of E is really far-sighted, strategizing, thinking about what no one dares to think, and he can quickly achieve results and immediately feed back the construction of the world.

The top and bottom are also full of confidence in the follow-up war with the Qing army, and the troops are united in high morale.

The time finally entered September of the fifth year of Longwu.

It is another harvest season, and all provinces have devoted their main domestic efforts to ensuring the autumn harvest.

It seems that because the Xiaoice period is fading away, this year's harvest has generally picked up slightly compared to the previous year.

Not only can the southern provinces be absolutely self-sufficient, but they can ensure that there is still surplus grain to be levied as military rations, or the government will purchase reserves at the expense of the government. Hips

Even Henan and Shaanxi, which had just been recovered for a year or two, actually achieved self-sufficiency for the first time.

Zhu Shuren had previously invited Zhu Changshu, Emperor Longwu, and in the past two years, he has implemented tax exemption for Henan and Shaanxi, which have just been recovered.

The main reason is that the Ming Dynasty was also accustomed to relying only on the financial income of the southern provinces to support the imperial court in the first four years, and the capital was close to Nanjing, which was the core area of the wealthy area, and there was no need for remote and poor areas to transport money and grain to the capital to spend.

Since there will be a Northern Expedition in the future, even if Henan and Shaanxi grow more grain, they can also be purchased and stored locally by the government as the future Northern Expedition military rations, so why bother to transfer them to the surrounding areas of the capital in one fell swoop? This is not a waste of capacity, but only increases the loss in transit!

Therefore, the imperial court from Longwu four to six years, and even in the future, the grace period can be extended, and the requirements for Shaanxi and Henan are all to feed themselves, and there is no need to hand over a grain of grain to the imperial court, and even the head tax on silver money does not have to be paid, as long as you don't ask the imperial court for relief grain.

There is really enough food to eat in the local area, and the court spends money to buy yours, and it is not in vain. After being purchased, it was used as military rations for the garrisons in the Henan-Shaanxi frontier, and the amount of military rations transferred from the rear was reduced.

Moreover, during the de facto armistice of the Ming and Qing dynasties, Zhu Shuren also reduced the number of garrisons on the first-line border, and did not press hundreds of thousands of main forces of the Ming army to Henan, Lunan, and northern Jiangsu, because he knew that the Qing army did not have the strength to fight back and tear up the peace. Hips

On the front line, only tens of thousands of full-time standing troops were stationed in case of contingencies, and the other full-time standing troops remained in Huainan and even Jiangnan to eat directly on the spot in the grain-producing areas, which also saved a large amount of loss in transporting military rations to the northern front.

The army that stayed in Henan, except for a small number of elite soldiers who were out of production, were all soldiers who had to farm when they were busy farming, and they were also grain producers, so they could use the vast and sparsely populated wasteland in Henan, and it was not a burden.

In contrast, during this armistice period, the Qing army had to station heavy troops along the north bank of the Yellow River and the Taishan Mountains because it knew that it was already a weaker side, and it did not dare to reopen the war for the time being.

Therefore, the use of military rations by the Qing army during the armistice was not even much slower than during the war. If they continue to hold each other, even if they don't go to war, they can eat Hauge to death within a few years by eating military rations!

The Han people under Hauge's rule are naturally under increasing pressure, and their anger is becoming more and more ruthless, and they are already like a powder keg that explodes at one point.

In such an environment, the chain of changes finally happened.

On the seventeenth day of the ninth month of the fifth year of Longwu, Jiang Xuan, the chief soldier of Datong, after enduring it for a long time, finally officially pulled the flag, contacted several Han generals in the south of Shanxi, plus the central and northern regions of Shanxi directly under his own direct jurisdiction, pulled the flag and changed the banner, and officially announced the departure from the Qing Dynasty and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty! Hips

Jiang Hao's choice of this time point was, of course, a deliberate one.

As mentioned earlier, in fact, at the end of July and the beginning of August, he was already ready to move because of Haoge's series of squeezing, internal purges, and the transfer of the Shanxi Manchu Qing army to Hebei to do things.

But Jiang Hao didn't dare to do it directly at that time, he still prepared for so long, and held it for an extra month and a half, the purpose was to wait for the autumn harvest and wait for the initial storage of autumn grain.

Shanxi is too poor! Mountainous and barren, it was difficult to feed itself in food in the years when the Xiaoice Age was just turning to recovery.

If the flag is pulled at the end of July and the beginning of August, once Haoge quickly counterattacks, and the relatively poor Fenshui River Valley and Yangquan River Valley in the area controlled by Jiang Hao are occupied by the Qing army, forcing Jiang Hao to cage the city and defend it, then he may soon be starved to death.

In the middle of September, the autumn grain that was collected was finally held by Jiang Hao in his military food warehouse, and his courage was finally fat, and he felt that he could hold on to the army of the Ming Dynasty to meet him no matter what!

Then he can become a hero anyway, at least re-dedicate half of the province's land to Daming, so that he can be treated similarly to Wu Sangui, and completely whitewash his previous crimes. Hips

Of course, there are still military risks and difficulties, mainly because Jiang Jiu, as the chief soldier of Datong, can control and liaise with the rebellion, at most, it is in the central and northern parts of Shanxi.

In the Yuncheng Basin, Zhongtiao Mountain, and even the Hanoi area in the south of Shanxi, Jiang Hao couldn't fight at all.

Once Jiang Huang pulled the flag, there was also a Huaiqing Mansion in Henan Province, located north of the Yellow River, which was still in the hands of the Qing army, between his jurisdiction and the Henan jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty. plus Pingyang Mansion, Luzhou Mansion and Zezhou Mansion in the south of Shanxi.

Therefore, after Jiang Huang started, on the one hand, he had to hold the dangerous passes in Taihang Mountain to prevent the Hebei Qing army from attacking in the east, and on the other hand, he had to send troops south to sneak attack as soon as possible, and strive to occupy the three prefectures in Henan and Shanxi that were sandwiched between him and the Ming Dynasty, and open up the land communication between him and the Ming court, so that he could be regarded as completely safe.

Of course, before he sent his troops, he must also inform Daming, imploring Daming to stay in Luoyang and Kaifeng's troops to go north, fight him from the north and south, and defeat the four Qing army-controlled mansions, not just himself.