In the morning of the same day, the four messengers left Gaizhou on the ice linden.

The speed of the ice linden gliding is extremely fast, a lot faster than riding a horse, as long as you do not encounter ice holes on the road and fall into the sea, you can cross the Beihai Sea to Dengzhou and Dagu mouth on the same day.

At noon that day, Yan Yingyuan from Dagukou and Wang Jiayan from Dengzhou both received urgent deliveries.

After Wang Jiayan received the urgent delivery, he instructed Hu Xinshui to send it to Nanjing in an expedited manner of 800 miles.

Two days later, the dusty messenger entered Nanjing City from the Taiping Gate, but Chongzhen was not in the city, nor was he in the Qingliangshan Gewu Science Workshop, but took Zhu Cihong to the arsenal.

Chongzhen was very busy, and after finishing the steam engine, he continued to work on mountain artillery.

Before receiving the report, Chongzhen was explaining to Zhan Yangzhi and Bu Jialao the 3-inch cannon he envisioned.

Bugarao is now wiser, no longer thinking about his skills, and has become a diligent chief engineer.

Therefore, human nature is actually the same, without real skills, you will not get the real respect of others, and it is impossible to be truly convincing.

But if you have real skills, you will definitely be respected.

For example, Bu Jialao, now to Chongzhen, he is a servant of yours, more dog-legged than Qu Shawei, and he has a posture of wanting to kneel down and lick Chongzhen's toes.

Seeing Zhan Yangzhidu, he sighed with emotion,

When it comes to sycophancy, it has to be a Francophone man.

"Anyway, this 3-inch mountain cannon I imagined,"

"After disassembly, the weight of each component must not exceed 200 catties."

"As long as it weighs no more than 200 pounds, not only can the pack horse be easily carried away, but when the situation is critical, it can even be carried by artillery, so that the mobility of this mountain gun can be greatly improved."

"Then even in the lofty mountains and mountains of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan provinces, you can accompany the infantry on the march."

After saying this, Chongzhen said again: "This is all I want, can I do it?" ”

"It can be done!" Without waiting for Zhan Yangzhi to speak, Bu Jialao hurriedly said, "Your Majesty the Emperor, no matter what kind of request you make, your servant Bu Jialao will definitely find a way to do it for you." ”

"Okay." Chongzhen nodded happily and said, "With your words, I can rest assured." ”

Zhan Yangzhi shook his head and said, "Holy Lord, what can't be done in this matter can't be done." ”

Chongzhen looked at it, and Zhan Yangzhi went on to explain: "The wheels, frame, gun mount and adjustment mechanism of this 3-inch mountain gun are not mentioned for the time being, but the weight of the barrel is far more than 200 catties. ”

"According to the weight of the 4-inch gun, the minimum outer diameter of the 3-inch gun is at least 5 inches, and the length of the barrel is about 8 feet, so the weight of the barrel alone must be at least 500 kilograms, so it can't be 200 kilograms anyway."

In the past two years, Zhan Yangzhi has spent most of his time in the arsenal, and now he can be regarded as an expert in weapons in the Ming Dynasty.

Chongzhen frowned slightly when he heard this.

Because he knew that Zhan Yangzhi was not talking nonsense.

Even if the minimum outer diameter is 5 inches, the barrel weighs 500 kilograms.

But in fact, the cannons are spindle-shaped, and the outer diameter of the bottom of the bore is not only 5 inches, but also more than 6 inches, so the weight of the gun body is never more than 500 catties, or even more than 600 catties.

After pondering for a moment, Chongzhen said again: "Then reduce the caliber of this cannon to 2.5 inches." ”

The 2.5-inch caliber is also 80 mm caliber, which is similar to the 75 mountain guns of later generations.

Zhan Yangzhi still shook his head when he heard this: "Even if the caliber of this cannon is reduced to two and a half inches, the cannon body is still nearly 400 catties, which is still half of the 200 catties required by the saint, what can I do?" ”

At this time, Bugarao retorted: "By reducing the wall thickness of the barrel, at least another 100 catties can be reduced." ”

"Impossible." Zhan Yangzhi categorically objected, "With a caliber of two and a half inches, the outer diameter of the smallest body tube must be four and a half inches, no matter how small it is, it will not be able to withstand the pressure of the bore." ”

"You can use stiffeners to strengthen your body."

Bu Jialao said: "This can reduce the weight by at least another 100 pounds." ”

"Stiffeners." Zhan Yangzhi's brows furrowed, this is really possible.

"Yes, stiffeners." "I promise in the name of God that I will not blow up the bore." ”

Zhan Yangzhi shook his head and said: "But even so, the cannon body still weighs 300 catties, and there is still a difference of 100 catties from the 200 catties required by the saint, so what can I do?" ”

Now Bugarao was silent.

300 pounds is really the limit of weight loss.

"300 pounds is 300 pounds." Chongzhen can only accept reality.

"But the weight of the gun carriage must be controlled within 200 catties, and the wheel assembly cannot exceed 200 catties, so that the overall weight will not exceed 700 catties."

The 700-pound 2.5-inch mountain gun is actually acceptable.

[Note: The weight of early cannons is mainly in the barrel, and the weight of modern artillery is mainly in the gun carriage, so under the premise of low complexity and precision of the gun carriage, the weight of early cannons of the same caliber is relatively much lighter]

With the 2.5-inch mountain gun, it can not only fill the gap in firepower between the Tiger squat gun and the 4-inch field gun, but also far exceed the range and lethality of the Franc machine gun or the camel whirlwind gun.

And with a 300-pound cannon body, mules and horses can carry the march.

If you are worried that mules and horses are too difficult, you can also consider camels.

So as long as it is built, it must be an excellent mountain cannon.

After a pause, Chongzhen said again: "Then you will step up the trial production." ”

"Command." Bugarao received the decree and left in a hurry.

Zhan Yangzhi wanted to speak and stopped, as Dong Weng of the Ming Arsenal, he had more things to consider, for example, after the mass production of this 2.5-inch mountain gun, how much was the price?

And how to arrange the production capacity of this mountain gun?

After all, there are only so many skilled gunners in the Ming Arsenal.

The production capacity is given to 2.5-inch mountain guns, and 4-inch field guns are less.

Chongzhen seemed to be able to guess what Zhan Yang was thinking, and said: "You don't have to worry about the price, you will never let the Daming Arsenal suffer, as for how to distribute the production capacity, we will talk about it then." ”

"In this case, the minister will retire." Now Zhan Yangzhi has no problem.

After sending Zhan Yangzhi and Bu Jialao away, Chongzhen asked Zhu Cihong again: "Hong'er, has there been an urgent delivery from North Korea in the past few days?" How is Jiong'er's side handling things? When will North Korea's craftsmen be able to come here? ”

If the arsenal wants to explode its production capacity, it can't do without blacksmiths, and North Korean blacksmiths can't let it go.

"Father, the will to the third brother has been sent out a long time ago, presumably there should be a reply in the next few days."

As soon as Zhu Cihong's words fell, a little eunuch hurriedly ran in, gasping and said: "Long live Lord, hurry up, there is an urgent delivery from Liaodong, there is an urgent delivery!" ”

Gao Qiqian stretched out his hand to take the express delivery.

Then he took out a dagger and cut through the fire paint.

After reading the letter, Chongzhen's face instantly collapsed.

"Damn it!" Chongzhen said hatefully, "I seem to have missed something. ”

"What's the matter?" Zhu Cihong hurriedly said, "Father, what's going on in Liaodong?" ”

Gao Qiqian was also secretly worried, and said that Liaodong should not lose the battle, right?

Chongzhen didn't say much, just handed the letter in his hand to Zhu Cihong.

"Jiannu also started to repair the platform?" Zhu Cihong was also stunned after reading the letter.

"Jiannu is not just about repairing the platform." Chongzhen said in a deep voice, "Hong'er, do you still remember the national policy that Fan Wenzhenggong used to deal with Western Xia when Song Renzong was in power?" ”

"Erchen remembers." Zhu Cihong replied, "Shallow attack and build!" ”

"yes, shallow attack." Chongzhen frowned and said, "I should have thought of it a long time ago, I should have thought of it a long time ago." ”

"Father, the situation may not be as bad as imagined, this may just be Jiannu's unintentional, and it does not mean that Jiannu's overall tactics have been innovated." Zhu Cihong whispered comfortingly.

Chongzhen shook his head and said, "Hong'er, do you believe this?" ”

Zhu Cihong was silent for a moment, but no, he didn't even believe it.

Gao Qiqian was confused by Chongzhen's father and son, he wanted to ask but didn't dare to ask, and he was so anxious that he scratched his cheeks.

Chongzhen sighed lightly and said: "Speaking of which, I am still too wishful thinking, I only thought that my Ming army can use the tactics of 'hardening the village and fighting a dumb war', but I forgot that Jiannu may also return the favor to the other in his own way, and it will also follow my Daming to adopt the tactics of 'forming a hard village and fighting a dumb war', but now I am cocooned and bound myself." ”

To tell the truth, Jiannu would change course and adopt the tactic of "shallow attack and construction", which Chongzhen did not expect.

Because Jiannu has been attacking, attacking, and attacking again since the day Lao Nu raised his army, from Lao Nu to Huang Taiji, and then from Huang Taiji to Dolgon, he has never stopped the offensive.

From beginning to end, Jiannu has been pressing the Ming army to fight without stopping.

But now Jiannu suddenly learned from the Song army and played shallow attack and construction, which caught Chongzhen off guard.

Jiannu can't learn Zeng Guofan's "hardening the village and fighting dumb battles", but he can learn Fan Zhongyan's "shallow attack and construction", and the essence of these two tactics is actually the same.

What's even more troublesome is that Chongzhen also upgraded this tactic.

Zeng Guofan just built an ordinary camp, and Fan Zhongyan only built a regular walled fort, but Chongzhen upgraded the ordinary camp and the regular walled fort to a fortress!

Hardening the village, fighting in a daze, and combining the fortress, the Ming army adopted this strategy to deal with Jiannu, which was naturally excellent.

But now Jiannu is also using this strategy to deal with the Ming army, which will be a big trouble, which means that the Ming army needs to sacrifice many more people, which is really a mistake.

It's just that then again, Chongzhen has no other choice.

If he hadn't adopted this strategy, he would not have been able to hold the Huanghuai defense line at all, and Daming would have died long ago.

Therefore, the matter has come to this point, and the chagrin and regret are useless, so let's think about how to solve this game.

Zhu Cihong also whispered and persuaded: "Father, Jiannu may not understand the essence of 'hardening the village and fighting dumb battles', even if he learns, at most he can only learn a little fur, and he actually can't pose much of a threat to my Daming." ”

"Not really." Chongzhen waved his hand and said, "We must prepare for the worst. ”

Zhu Cihong didn't say more, because Chongzhen often said that the enemy should be lenient.

The estimate of the enemy should be as high as possible.