Zhang Mingshi took a sip of wine and said, "Then let's call Genghis Khan's grandson and go to clean up Nurhachi's in-laws together, what is it called." ”

Ma Xianglin said: "Horqin." General Zhang, when I was in Shanhaiguan, General Du mentioned that Horqin had a very high prestige among the various tribes of southern Mongolia, and occupied a land with abundant water and grass and rich products. ”

Zhang Mingshi glanced at him and sighed: "No matter how elite you are, you are also riding a horse?" Xianglin, the Sichuan soldiers who can fight in your family will be distributed to Zhang Chengyin in Liaodong and Juniper in Shanhaiguan, can't they be recovered? It's a pity. ”

Zheng Haizhu interrupted Zhang Mingshi: "I said that don't instigate the relationship between Xianglin and the imperial court again." The 8,000 people in Shanhaiguan are not all transferred from Shu, at least half of them are recruited by the military department after the Battle of Fushun and assigned to Xianglin to practice, right? What about juniper people, I haven't dealt with them, I don't know. Zhang Chengyin will not treat the two thousand guest troops sent to Liaoyang by Xianglin. ”

Zhang Mingshi grinned and waved his hand indiscriminately, with an attitude of "Grandma, you are right".

Zheng Haizhu continued to stare at him seriously: "But Lao Zhang, as a general, you really can't lack people under your command." The cavalry of Shanhaiguan had to turn around to get to this Xuanfu Town. As for your firearms, it is not as difficult to train as cavalry, I will urge the Lord Banzai to give an order quickly, and the young and strong of the king's clan will come to the duty for training as soon as possible. Also, you don't just have to hire people, you also have to train camels. ”

"What's the use of training that thing?" Zhang Mingshi asked curiously.

Zheng Haizhu said: "You have been guarding Yunnan for so many years, how much can the Dian horse carry?" ”

"Two or three hundred pounds."

"Camels can carry 500 catties, and their endurance is much stronger than that of horses, and they don't pick anything to eat, and they don't even have to eat it for a long time. Lao Zhang, five hundred catties, in our cannon, as long as it is not an eagle falcon or a big snake, the camel can carry it down, saving manpower and horsepower. Moreover, camels can not only be used to carry baggage, but also can go directly to the battlefield......"

When Zheng Haizhu said this, he turned to Ma Xianglin and said: "You can't set up firearms on your horseback, but you can't put up a camel's hump." Xianglin, do you remember that when we met the Spaniards in Penghu, we saw the kind of small cannons on the side of their ships that were lighter than turtledoves? ”

Ma Xianglin squinted his eyes and recalled slightly, nodded and said: "Yes, two or three feet long, the mouth doesn't seem to be much thicker than your arquebus, and there is a mechanism underneath, can you go around and fight?" ”

"Yes, then I asked a brother about the Portuguese who he invited from the Realm, and that thing was translated into plain text, called a boomerang. We tried some at the Songjiang Firearms Factory and sent them to Fujian for Yu Zhigao's sailors. Now that I think about it, although the lead bullet used in the boom cannon is small, it is enough to shoot a killer horse within a hundred steps, so why not use it when the desert is engaged with the enemy? ”

Zhang Mingshi clasped his hands together and said, "That's right." ”

Before he was imprisoned by the Ming court, he was the most proficient at using firearms in the Yunnan border pass, and he was good at this, so he naturally suddenly realized it after listening to a few ears.

The old man understood, and the whole wooden frame between the camel's hump was like the side of a ship. You say that the caliber of the cannon is very small, and it can't hurt a camel after firing a bullet. It's a good thing, it can turn around and fight cavalry, and it can move with camels. ”

Zheng Haizhu smiled.

The kind of camel cannon they discussed, in history, really appeared in the later battles of the Qing government and Dzungaria, which was summarized by Zhang Mingshi, with small recoil, good mobility, and little use in attacking and defending the city, but in field battles, especially for cavalry approaching at high speed, the lethality is not small.

"Lao Zhang, I'll leave some silver for you, and then let Chang Gongzi find a tooth man who understands camels to take with you, let's buy the camels, and let those animals listen to your firearms soldiers fire guns for a while. Camels are timid and inferior to war horses. At the beginning of spring next year, I will bring Mr. Song Yingxing and Mr. Song, and you will see how the gun carriage on the camel's back is in order, and the swing gun is changed from the side of the ship to the camel's back, which places need to be greatly changed. ”

……

In the evening, the border city is plugged up, and the air is piercing.

This gateway town to the south of Xuanfu is full of lights and noisy people.

After the opening of Longqing, as the hub of Mongolia, Manchuria, Ming and Western Regions, as long as the weather is not bad enough to block the road and freeze the camels and horses, Xuanfu Town is a lively big wharf that crosses the canal banknote pass, and at the night of the curfew, there is no lack of the charming color of Suzhou and Hangzhou.

Chang Zhongxin, the young owner of the Jin Dynasty, asked Zheng Haizhu what he meant, and came to invite Zhang Mingshi, Wei Zhongxian and others to go to the best flower building in the town.

Zheng Haizhu took the brocade guard assigned to her by Liu Qiao, and called a pawn at the post station to stroll in the direction of Chengguan.

I didn't want to go under the city wall, I didn't have to look at the Jinyi guard's sign, and the post guard didn't have to open my mouth to guarantee, the guard asked Zheng Haizhu for a few copper plates, and let the group go up.

"Azhu." Ma Xianglin shouted behind him and paced the city wall.

He didn't go to the brothel.

"It's not a place of governance or an avant-garde, and the defense is too loose." Ma Xianglin frowned.

Zheng Haizhu patted the wall tiles that were falling into the dust, and sighed lightly: "I heard your father-in-law say that in the past, there were more than a dozen guards and thousands of households in Xuanfu Town, and if the soldiers were full, there were seventy or eighty thousand people, and the camps and forts were even denser. The shoe is on the other foot. However, as in Liaodong, it is still too late. ”

Ma Xianglin was silent, looking into the distance, the last rays of sunset smeared on the beacon tower of the Great Wall, but that little bit of golden red was fleeting.

"It's still too late".

This seems to have become the mantra of the women around her.

When the boat with the bottom pit flooded sailed to Taiwan, when Nurha Chidong committed Fushun, when Zhu Qianju wanted to bomb Wang Gongchang, and when Ma Xianglin lost his mind in the cell where his father lived in the Imperial Prison, the phrase "it's still too late" sounded in his ears.

At this moment, General Ma, who was in silence, heard the people around him whisper again, as if muttering to himself, and said: "Actually, I don't know if it's too late, just like your cavalry, just rush forward, retreat, and die faster." ”

Ma Xianglin sensed the hesitation and fragility in his best friend's tone.

He turned his head sideways, stared at Zheng Haizhu and said: "When I was a child, I heard my eldest sister ask my mother if she was afraid when she saw the enemy approaching, and my mother said that I was not afraid, because I was all comrades on the left and right and behind me. ”

Zheng Haizhu: "General Qin said it well! Hmm, if it were Feng Yi, she would probably say, don't be afraid, before they rush over, I will shoot them to death one by one. ”

The corners of General Ma's mouth, which had always been tense, finally relaxed, and there was a trace of tenderness in his starry eyes.

These are indeed the words of a wife who is as sassy as a calf.

Zheng Haizhu walked west along the city wall, and said as he walked: "On the day that Ye Gong suggested that Long Live Lord punish you for coming to Xuanfu Town, after I left the palace to inquire with my friends in Donglin, I went to your house and asked General Qin and Fengyi to put their hearts in their stomachs. Because Cui Jingrong, the current governor of Xuanda, although he is not a Donglin faction, he has been promoted by Ye Xianggao all the way. Fang Congzhe gave him small shoes to wear a few years ago, either saying that he was making a false life, or dragging his salary, which was also managed by Ye Xianggao's protégé in Beijing. At present, Zhao Menglin, the chief soldier of the Xuanfu, had returned to his home in Shaanxi to recuperate a few years ago, and when the border affairs were urgent, he went out of the mountains to serve as the chief military officer of this important town on the nine borders. So, Xianglin, Cui Dudu and Master Zhao, I believe that they will be the 'comrades' in your mother's mouth." ”