Was there artillery first, or was there artillery first?

Chongzhen chose to train artillery first, after all, war is always people-centered, and without capable artillery, no matter how many cannons are built, it is also for people to marry.

After returning to the palace for a while, Chongzhen summoned Xu Guangqi, a waiter from the Ministry of Rites, to learn about the compilation of teaching materials arranged before he left Beijing.

Xu Guangqi reported: "Since the minister was appointed, he immediately suspended the work on the Geometric Original. With Matteo Ricci compiling the artillery mathematics textbook, he has basically completed the plane geometry and elementary algebra parts. ”

"As for the plane triangle mentioned by the emperor, or even the mechanics in Tessie's natural philosophy, the ministers have not caught it, and they are contacting other Jesuit priests to ask if they have any involvement."

Chongzhen nodded, "I don't need those people to become mathematicians, the theoretical aspect may not require profundity, the key is to connect with practical application, so that they can understand which formulas to apply."

"Not only that, but the parts you have already written should also be applied, so that they can look up logarithmic tables, and know some quick calculations and estimation skills."

Xu Guangqi hurriedly wrote it down, and called it Shengming.

Chongzhen asked again, "Has the first batch of trainees been selected?" ”

Xu Guangqi replied, "Returning to the Holy Lord, five hundred men who are good at mental arithmetic and shrewd minds have been selected from the major brands of the Beijing Division according to the Holy Metaphor, and together with the left-behind artillery in the Beijing camp and the left-behind artillery in Jizhen, they will go to the western part of Beijing for selection. ”

Chongzhen nodded and said, "To train elite soldiers, the key lies in selection. Some people have poor eyesight, some people panic, and some people have rough branches, all of which must be eliminated in the selection. ”

"Only those who stay to the end are qualified to spend gunpowder and cannonballs on training and become my elite."

Xu Guangqi nodded yes. "The emperor is far-sighted, and this training will be successful. It's just that the inferior disciple Sun Yuanhua was specially summoned from the Denglai General Army to serve as the commander of the Xishan Artillery School, will it be a bit overkill? ”

Chongzhen shook his head, "Although Sun Yuanhua has experienced the battle of Ningyuan, he can be regarded as a storm, but he is only a partial talent, not a general. ”

"If I hadn't called him back, there would have been even bigger things going wrong in the future."

It turned out that under the jurisdiction of the Denglai General Army, there were not only young and strong people recruited locally in Shandong, but also troops from Liaozhen.

Among them, there is the remnant of Phi Island after Mao Wenlong's death.

In the real history, Kong Youde was supposed to support Zu Dashou who was besieged in the Daling River in the fourth year of Chongzhen, but he mutinied halfway, and in turn seized the military power of Zhang Tao, who came to Shandong from Phi Dao, to capture Dengzhou and besiege Laizhou.

What's even worse is that Kong Youde snatched the advanced artillery imported from Macao by Sun Yuanhua at that time and surrendered to Jianzhou, making the defense line of western Liaoning also precarious, and it can no longer resist the Jianzhou army.

Some people believe that Kong Youde's rebellion was because the imperial court beheaded Mao Wenlong, but Kong Youde's group of Pidao generals were not so loyal to Mao Shuai, otherwise they would not have allowed Yuan Chonghuan to take a few followers to Ga Mao's head.

In fact, the biggest reason for the rebellion of Kong Youde and others was that they had fought countless battles with Jianzhou, and they had lost more than they won, and they did not want to go to Daling River to die.

Secondly, after Liaodong was invaded and occupied, a large number of Liao people fled to Hebei, Shandong and other places, but the population of these places had long been saturated, and there was no land to settle them.

Therefore, at that time, the northern Ming Dynasty generally discriminated against the Liao people and Liao soldiers, and the contradiction between the host and the guest was extremely prominent.

Of course, Sun Yuanhua's lack of personal charm and insufficient restraint on his subordinates are also important reasons.

In Chongzhen's previous simulation, as long as the military department inadvertently asked Kong Youde to leave the station, this kid would definitely rebel.

Therefore, Chongzhen simply found an opportunity to kill him after the change, and at the same time dismantled the Liao soldiers in Denglai, and all of them were enriched to the Sun Zushou Department in Jizhen and the Mangui Department in Datong.

As for the general soldier of Denglai, it was served by Ma Dengyun, who had made meritorious contributions before.

Absorbing this lesson, Chongzhen also decided to concentrate on training artillery units first.

On the one hand, it is to improve the professional quality of the artillery, and on the other hand, it is also to make changes in the allocation of the artillery, so as to avoid an incident like the Wuqiao Mutiny, which will cause subversive consequences.

Chongzhen said earnestly, "Xu Guangqi, I want to take a look at Sun Yuanhua's temperament first, and don't mention it to him." If he can withstand this ordeal, then he will have more than one general soldier in the future. ”

"In a few days, let's go to Xishan together to see how the artillery school is being built."

"What I have now is silver, I will give you 50,000 taels to procure it first, and as for the business of your Ministry of Rites, just hand it over to He Rupet and other colleagues."

Xu Guangqi answered.

A few days later, Chongzhen came to the location of the artillery school.

The western part of Beijing is rich in terrain, especially the location of the artillery school, which has a variety of terrains such as hills, mountains, rivers, and swamps, which is most suitable for artillery training.

Chongzhen walked out of the carriage and saw that the students who had passed the selection were already wearing short shirts and began to run around the leveled open space.

This is also Chongzhen's request. Because he has to train not only the artillery for defending the city, but also the field artillery.

For field artillery, sometimes there is no choice between when and where to set up artillery.

If you have enough physical fitness, you are likely to be able to pull up the high ground and shoot more.

This cannon may have been a turning point in changing the course of the war.

Sun Yuanhua and Xu Guangqi came to Chongzhen to greet him and report on the preparation and operation of the artillery school.

"Your Majesty, according to your request, put the school buildings and dormitory buildings behind, and keep close to the front for the training of vehicle-mounted artillery formations, artillery drills, sports, shooting, etc. Although everyone is still living in the ground covered with skin, they have already tried it once. ”

"Those students who can't endure hardship, or who are afraid to clean the gun chamber, have all been sent back to the capital."

Chongzhen nodded, "That's how it should be, when training, he is afraid of the front and back, what can he expect him to do when he goes to the battlefield?" ”

Sun Yuanhua nodded yes, pointed to a newly sent artillery carriage, and said excitedly, "Your Majesty, this new artillery carriage sent by the Ministry of Engineering is really ingenious. We had never imagined that we could use a gun carriage to change the angle of fire of an artillery gun and cushion the impact of a filling explosion. ”

"Before, my Ming artillery was loaded on the car just to facilitate movement, and every time it was fired, it was necessary to move the barrel off the car and put it on the position. Now with the artillery carriage, even if you encounter the enemy suddenly, you can calmly strike the enemy. ”

Chongzhen observed Sun Yunhua while responding to the peace, and saw that the other party was full of heartfelt smiles, and he couldn't see the slightest unhappiness of being demoted for no reason.

It seems that he underestimated him, this is simply a technocrat born entirely for artillery.

"Sun Yuanhua, these artillery trucks will let the Ministry of Industry continue to build them. Here you can ask Yuan Chonghuan for some experienced artillery masters to formulate artillery drills and standards for the military academy to check the quality of shooting. ”

"Once the standard is set, your artillery school will be half of it."

Sun Yuanhua naturally took the order.

Chongzhen looked at the vibrant artillery school in front of him, and was also infected.

With artillery, the next thing is to buy cannons and cast cannons.

Still, artillery is very expensive. In Europe of the same era, even the lightest two-pounder cannon was worth as much as ten sets of full-body armor, which can be said to be enough to be a family heirloom of a small nobleman.

So, I'm still short of money! Chongzhen, who had just scavenged 300,000 taels of silver, fell into the eternal predicament of ordinary people.

Can't fall into the dead cycle of lack of money, making money, and spending money anymore, Chongzhen sighed, the key is to invigorate the financial revenue of the Ming Dynasty.