Then there are some specific appointments and various regulations, and these things that should be changed are basically the same, but there is no need to go into too much detail.

And with the establishment of the reform of the Jingying and Nine-sided systems, all that remains is some words that are spoken behind closed doors.

"The national teacher, the loyal uncle, and a few other national princes will stay together, and the others can disperse."

Zhu Di knocked on the table, and the generals responded with a bang, followed by the sound of the nail leaves, and they dispersed.

In the huge conference hall, in addition to Zhu Di, there are only six people left, including Jiang Xinghuo, Ru Yu, Zhu Neng, Qiu Fu, Yao Guangxiao, and Xu Jingchang.

Jiang Xinghuo actually found a special thing to focus on, that is, after the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies completed the overlap of power, the overall age of the top level was still relatively young, and the princes and uncles were generally in their thirties and forties, and there were very few veterans who were old.

Among the dozens of people, the older ones can basically be counted on one hand, Rongguo Gong Yao Guangxiao (69 years old), Qi Guogong Qiu Fu (61 years old), Xing'an Bo Xu Xiang (72 years old), Yingcheng Bosun Yan (65 years old), just these four.

Does this matter make sense? Of course, it is meaningful, the significance lies in the fact that people of different ages have completely different attitudes and tendencies towards the same thing, generally speaking, the older they are, the more cautious and sluggish, which is commonly known as "the older the rivers and lakes, the less courageous", while the young people are relatively energetic, reflected in the military, that is, the young generals are usually brave and aggressive, forge ahead, and the old generals are generally cautious and cautious.

When the top echelons of the military are generally "young Zhuang faction," then they will be more inclined to make meritorious contributions, expand their territory outward, and implement an active foreign policy.

"Squeak~"

The doors of the conference hall were shut, and when the light was cut off, a sense of silence permeated.

Zhu Di was draped in heavy armor, revealing the murderous aura and sense of oppression that was deliberately restrained when he usually wore a dragon robe.

"Say a few thoughtful words behind closed doors."

Zhu Di moved his back away from the back of the chair, bent one elbow, supported his knee, and swept his gaze over everyone.

"I've had enough of this south."

"While there is time now, we must organize and prepare the whole army, and at the beginning of spring this year, the snow on the road has melted, the mud has dried up, and the army has gone north."

"Go to Henan and enter Guanzhong directly from Tongguanxi."

Zhu Di said hatefully: "King Qin, King Jin, these two little bastards, the butcher's knife that Jianwen cut the clan fell on his head back then, and he didn't want to resist, but joined forces to help Jianwen, and I will clean them up this year." ”

The crowd was silent.

Cutting the feudal domain is not only the new and old grudge between the two generations of the Qin and Jin feuds and Zhu Di, but also the inevitable need of the entire northern border defense system.

"When the time comes, let Sheng Yong and Ping'an lead troops to go down to Jin from the north, and Xu Huizu will enter Jin from Jingcheng Road in the east, and it will be solved all at once."

"As for the affairs of the steppe, the Northern Yuan has just disintegrated, the Warat Department is in the west, the Tatar Department is in the east, the Warat Department is not so jumpy, and the whip is beyond reach, so I can let them go for the time being, but the Tatar Department, I must fight, not only to the Warat Department, but also to the Uryanha Department."

Wuliang Habu, that is, Duoyan Sanwei, also known as Wuliang Ha Sanwei, belongs to Genghis Khan's younger brother Tiemu Ge Chijin lineage, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty by the Liao King Aza Li, nomadic in the area south of the Great Xing'an Mountains, and two things that happened in the middle and late Hongwu Dynasty, so that the Wuliang Habu began to tend to the Ming Dynasty, the first thing is that in the 20th year of Hongwu, the Northern Yuan Taiwei Naha led the crowd to surrender to the Ming, and the second thing is the victory of Hongwu 21 years of Lanyu in the fishing sea. The battle of Yuerhai made the Northern Yuan lose its vitality, and the defeat of the Northern Yuan in this battle also made the Mongolian tribes east of the Great Xing'an Mountains in an isolated and helpless situation, they could only choose to belong to the Ming Dynasty, so in the 21st year of Hongwu, the Liao King Aza lost after feeling the huge pressure of survival, in November sent an envoy to the old Zhu Chengchen to surrender.

Lao Zhu accepted the invitation of Aza Shuli to surrender, and in May of the 22nd year of Hongwu, he divided his subordinates into three, and set up Duoyan, Taining and Fuyu Sanwei in the Shanyang area, and set up these three guards under the Daning Dusi, Duoyanwei in the upper reaches of the Qu Split River (referring to the Gui Leli River, a southern tributary of the Taoer River) and the area of Duoyan Mountain; Taining Wei is in the Ta'er River (now Tao'er River) basin, that is, Taining Road in the Yuan Dynasty; Fuyuwei was in the Nenjiang River and Fuyu River (now Wuyuer River) basins.

However, Uliangha has always had a tradition of jumping left and right, and when Aza Lost realized that the Ming had no intention of continuing the northern expedition in Liaodong and launched a campaign similar to that of Yuerhai, he soon betrayed the Ming Dynasty in the twenty-third year of Hongwu.

For this reason, in the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, Lao Zhu ordered Zhu Di, the king of Yan, and Fu Youde, the prince of Yingguo, to lead the army out of the fortress to clear the three guards, which was the first time Zhu Di dealt with Duoyan three guards.

Well, mingling in the physical sense.

However, because of the cost of rule, the Ming Dynasty only maintained effective rule in Shenyang and other areas of the Liaohe Plain, because of the lack of population for immigration, so in addition to the Liaohe Plain, the entire northeast of the deep mountains and old forests and the grasslands close to Mongolia were occupied by the Jurchens and Mongols.

Lao Zhu knew very well that he could not exercise actual control over these places, so he had no intention of completely suppressing the Duoyan Sanwei, but established a buffer zone along the Liao River, isolated the Sanwei far north of Daning and Hedong, and strictly prevented them from infiltrating into the actual control area of the Ming Dynasty.

The incident mentioned by the king of Zhou before that the army of the Zhou domain went north was something that happened in the twenty-ninth year of Hongwu, because the king of Ning reported that "the cavalry patrol of the near one saw that there was a detachment left in the road", Lao Zhu ordered Zhu Di, the king of Yan, to select a strong horse to arrive in Daning, and monitor the three guards of Duoyan along the north and south of the river.

When it came to Jingnan, Zhu Di rushed thousands of miles to attack Daning, and it was the soldiers and horses of the Daning Dusi, as for the so-called "Duoyan Sanwei mercenaries", it belonged to the rumors of the Jianwen Imperial Court, do you say that there are people from Duoyan Sanwei who follow Zhu Di Jingnan? There must be that, but this number is very small, mostly spontaneous, and Duoyan Sanwei as a whole is still watching from the wall, after all, the two sides have always been enemies before.

In order to achieve victory in public opinion, the Jianwen court naturally said that the Tartar officials were borrowed from the Mongols by King Yan, and the emperor Shi Jingjiao was used to black Zhu Di.

In essence, there are many Tartar officials in the Yan army, which is a problem left over from history, but in any case, these Tartar officials are all subordinates of Zhu Di, and they are the products of the long-term internal migration of the Mongols.

After the Jingjing disaster, Zhu Di also ordered the rebuilding of Daning, Yingzhou, Xingzhou and other guards, and began to restore the two capitals of Beiping and Daning, which had been evacuated by himself, so that the Ming army could return to the outside of the pass.

But at this time, the military presence of the Ming army outside the pass is really not optimistic, especially the original strong Daning Dusi, which has indeed been thin from a tiger to a sick cat, and the attitude of the Daning generals is also something that Zhu Di needs to consider here, so for the Wuliang Habu, Zhu Di needs to regularly demonstrate or take the initiative to beat it to maintain the balance in the northeast and buy time for the Daning Dusi to recover.

The Uliangha and the Tatars are not of the same mind at all, and these wall grasses of the Uliangha are quite wasteful to be honest, they are the most timid and afraid of things in the Mongolian tribes, there is no big pursuit, they belong to being able to live, and rarely do things. Unless it is really a disaster and can't survive, he will consider using a knife, otherwise he usually looks like an honest and honest herdsman.

The main reason is that Uliangha has nothing to rob even if he uses a knife, the Tatars in the west, the Jurchens in the mountains in the east, and the Ming army in the Liaohe Plain in the south, all of which are hard stubble.

"Why don't you go north to the Tatar Department at that time, and then if the battle is over, divide a part of the troops to the east depending on the situation, and force the Uliangha Department to assist in sending troops to attack the Jurchens?"

At this time, Jiang Xinghuo suddenly said.

The Jurchens are always a big hidden danger, of course Jiang Xinghuo knows that without the Jurchens, there may be male real people, and the alien race is always like leeks in the ground, growing stubble by stubble, and it is impossible to cut it all.

But the problem is that since he knows the possible impact of the Jurchens on Chinese history, and makes him indifferent, Jiang Xinghuo can't do it.

So although it is very clear rationally that even if the Jurchens are exterminated, it may not really have any effect, Jiang Xinghuo still feels that he needs to do it.

Even if you breathe out of your heart, it's worth it.

Before Zhu Di could speak, Zhu Neng said first: "The key is not the Jurchens, but North Korea." ”

"That's right."

Qiu Fu also said: "North Korea has been secretly poking forts, subduing the Jurchen tribes of Haixi, pushing the border line to the west, and exterminating the Jurchens is easy, and the Jurchens are tens of thousands of people?" The problem is that the Jurchens are gone, and in such a large area in the mountainous area of Changbai Mountain, there are few people in North Korea and many people can migrate people, but we can't stand it. ”

Ru Yu also said cautiously at this time: "Changbai Mountain has a saying, "The Classic of Mountains and Seas" is called the unsalty mountain, the reason is because the snow on the Changbai Mountain is covered all year round, and its snow is white and flawless, similar to salt but not salty, so it is called the unsalty mountain. In the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was called Gaima Mountain, Tutai Mountain, and Taihuang Mountain, and in the Tang Dynasty, it was renamed Taibai Mountain, and the name of Changbai Mountain began in the Jin Dynasty and has been used to this day. This mountain was also the ruling core of the former Goguryeo Kingdom, and the Koreans have always remembered it. ”

After Ru Yu's explanation, everyone has a general understanding, and the main key lies in two places.

One is that in Korean mythology, the ancestor of the Korean people is named Danjun, he is the son of the mountain god, after the establishment of the dynasty, ruled the dynasty for a period of time, and then relived in seclusion in the mountains and forests, and the place of seclusion is called Taebaek Mountain, but this place is actually a mountain in North Korea, not Taibai Mountain during the Tang Dynasty in China, but the Koreans believe that from the myth and legend, Changbai Mountain should be their holy place.

The second is that the Goguryeo Kingdom, which was confronted by the Great Sui and the Tang Dynasty in history, originated in Changbai Mountain, but what should be said here is that although the Goguryeo Kingdom and the Goryeo Kingdom are only one word apart, they are actually not the same thing at all. The Goryeo Dynasty, also known as the Goryeo regime of the Wang clan, was established on the Korean Peninsula by the Goryeo people, who were mainly composed of the Silla and Baekje people, and its political system came from the Silla regime that unified the Korean Peninsula.

After the founding of the Goryeo Kingdom, under the influence of the policy of "great things", it successively proclaimed itself a vassal to the Later Tang, Later Jin, Later Han, Later Zhou, Northern Song, Liao, Jin, Yuan and Ming Dynasty, highlighting who is strong and who is my father, and has maintained a very stable father-son relationship with the Central Plains Dynasty.

The Kingdom of Goryeo and the current Kingdom of Joseon are in the same vein in terms of territory and legal theory, and 12 years ago, Yi Sung-gye deposed the last king of Goryeo and established the Yi dynasty.

But as I said before, Li's Joseon is not honest at all, relying on the rich military background left by the Yuan Dynasty as the eastern province of the Yuan Dynasty, while surrendering to the Ming Dynasty on the surface, it has been secretly making small moves.

After Li Fangyuan imprisoned his father and brother and ascended to the throne, he also had this virtue, relying on his old friendship with Zhu Di, and always wanted to take the Ming Dynasty with a deferential attitude towards a small country.

As for his people who are also usurping the throne and winning the country, whether they compare themselves to Zhu Di, or look down on Zhu Di, it is unknown, in short, they are still very humble on the surface, and every time they send envoys, they are respectful to the Ming Dynasty, and often chant about my king and His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty

Therefore, in short, in the eyes of the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty, the current extermination of the Jurchens is really not a matter of ability.

If the Ming Dynasty wanted to exterminate the Jurchens and erase this tribe from the world, it could be done easily.

The problem is that now the Liaodong of the Ming Dynasty adds up to more than 200,000 people, most of whom are military households, and the Jurchens have been extinct, and they have been directly sent back to the primitive tribal era.

North Korea now has a population of 6 million, and Daming has a population of 60 million, in terms of the total population, of course, Daming is much more than North Korea, but the problem is that you have to combine the population with the land area! In a place as big as the Ming Dynasty, the population of 60 million belongs to the whole with fewer people and more people (some areas have more people and less land, such as Jiangnan and Jiangxi), and although the northern part of the Korean Peninsula is also mountainous, the population of 6 million is still a little crowded for North Korea in this era.

It is precisely because of this kind of population pressure that the DPRK will have the endogenous motivation to pioneer abroad, and if its own land cannot be planted, the DPRK will definitely not choose to carry out these small actions on the border under the gaze of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Di suddenly slapped the table: "What do you want to do with this?" When the time comes, drive the troops eastward, and then let the Liaodong capital go north, and coerce Duoyan Sanwei and Li Fangyuan to send troops together. A slow ball? Directly wiped out, first destroy the Jurchens, and then garrison troops across the Yalu River, no need for the people, first stabilize the boundary river, and transport supplies from the sea, the Koreans disagreed and directly bulldozed Korea to change the king, or simply merged into the Ming Dynasty, isn't it all solved? ”

The previous plan made by Gu Cheng was to deal with the strongest female real force first, then to deter North Korea, and then to deal with the Huli Reform Department and the Towen Department, but if the main force of the Ming army really returned to the north, it really made no difference whether it came in order or one pot.

If you compare your heart to your heart, Jiang Xinghuo is also very clear that other people besides himself definitely don't regard the Jurchen as a threat now, and even the Jurchen is a dog raised by Daming to guard the home, and living in the kennel is to prevent the North Koreans from infiltrating the border Tuobian, if the Jurchens are killed, then Daming will have to garrison his own army.

There are no people in the local area, and the arable land conditions are poor, and it is difficult for the military to be self-sufficient.

Just settling economic accounts is a blood loss.

But Jiang Xinghuo feels that this is not just a matter of economic accounts.

"Of course, it's easy to change the king of North Korea, but if you want to eat North Korea in one go, I'm afraid the current Ming Dynasty can't do it."

Yao Guangxiao suddenly said at this time.

Zhu Di got off the donkey down the slope and said, "Then garrison?" What do you think of the national teacher, the garrison spends a lot of money, and this money is a bottomless pit, and it has to be thrown into it every year. ”

Why the Central Plains dynasties in the past dynasties will rarely choose to annex the Korean Peninsula, the important problem is that the cost of ruling is too high, the assimilation time is too long, the Goryeo Dynasty has enjoyed the country for nearly 500 years, and the upper and lower have long been self-contained, the Mongols have annexed, but they are also unable to form effective rule, or engage in the system of rogue officials, when the force is strong, it can still be suppressed, without strong force, it will be driven away by the locals immediately, and those who govern the local area, that are those local local heroes and families.

Jiang Xinghuo's Qing Dynasty in his previous life was the same, after the establishment of the Later Jin regime, fighting North Korea was like pinching a chick, but he didn't choose to annex it, and the reason in this is the same.

Of course, everything can actually be attributed to whether the benefits are attractive enough.

To put it bluntly, it is to fight North Korea, and the pay is not proportional to the return.

And it's different to fight Japan, if you fight Japan, the gold and silver mountains are real wealth, and they can be dug for hundreds of years, which belongs to "Tianyu does not take the blame", and if you don't fight, you are sorry for the old Zhu buried in Zhongshan.

But in fact, theoretically speaking, it is not necessary to fight North Korea.

All you need is a few springboards such as Jeju Island and Tsushima Island.

After all, if you set sail from the Yangtze River, this distance will be smooth sailing in a few days.

If you take the North Korean land route, it will take several months.

From the point of view of time, it is completely unnecessary.

When attacking Japan, it was enough to coerce the Koreans to send supplies and manpower.

It's easy to change the king of the Koreans, but the annexation of Korea is a matter that requires a long time of manpower, material and energy investment, at least the current Ming Dynasty should not be able to do it.

So in this matter, everyone has always been fierce in their mouths, and their hearts are clear.

"The Jurchens must be destroyed."

Jiang Xinghuo had such an attitude, and then said: "The garrison along the Yalu River is enough, just looking at the border trade with North Korea, anyway, the "Ming Dynasty Free Trade Contract" has also been signed, and the annual trade tax is enough to feed the garrison, at most it is a matter of making less money." ”

"Done."

Now the only items that North Korea needs to pay tribute to the Ming Dynasty every year are buffaloes, and war horses and the like are all commodities for free trade on the border.

It's just that now the place of trade between Daming and North Korea is not on the land border, but on Jeju Island.

If the Ming Dynasty can actually control the land border with a part of the garrison, then North Korea can also make transactions in the north, and then all the materials will be transferred from Denglai.

This year, these major events in the military aspect, such as cutting down the feudal domain, going out of the fortress to take revenge on the Tatars, and exterminating the Jurchens, were basically decided at the beginning of the year, and then there were other things.

"Today, let's go and see the progress of the new weapon, and then go to the field to inspect the defensive effect of the fortress."

"Vice President Xu will lead the way."

Zhu Di quipped, but this sentence made Ru Yu's heart sink.

Things that have been vaguely rumored before, this time I'm afraid it's going to come true.

There are always well-informed people who are leaking, because Jiang Xinghuo has led the law change in the past year, and in the second year of Yongle, the president of the law change affairs Yamen is about to be deliberately strengthened by the emperor.

In fact, it is true that the two institutions of the Ministry of Industry and the Arms Bureau of the Inner Court used to go hand in hand, and at the same time carried out the manufacture of various military products, but now the entire nascent light and heavy industry system has unified management according to the plan.

The handicraft workshop of the cotton textile industry is now wholly owned by the royal family, but it does not belong to the inner court, because let the eunuchs take care of it, it will not take long to play and scrap it, and it is currently Xu Jingchang in charge, but it is somewhat unjustifiable to include textiles, light industrial commodities, such as fertilizers, glass, cement, perfumes, and liquor, which are planned to be allocated to the president's law change affairs yamen this year.

This is not only Jiang Xinghuo's hard work in the past year, but also the adjustment that he will inevitably face with the deepening of the process of changing the law.

The main task of the president's law change affairs yamen is to make money, or in other words, in the emperor's case, the greatest significance of changing the law is to make money.

Therefore, most of the following departments, after this round of adjustment, are related to making money.

It is expected that the president's law change affairs yamen will be expanded to "four divisions and one department", that is, including the four divisions of the industrial department, the commercial department, the municipal shipping department, and the banking department, plus a separate Ming Pao office, which is already regarded as a standard ministerial-level configuration, similar to the six departments.

Different from the traditional civil official yamen, Zhu Di directly assigned two national princes as vice presidents this time, and each was in charge of a department.

The Industrial Department is in charge of Xu Jingchang, the Duke of Dingguo, which includes various franchised commodities of light and heavy industry, as well as research and development institutions for next-generation technologies such as steam engines and machine tools, which are specially independent, and the two downstream military production departments, that is, the Ordnance Bureau and the War Bureau, are merged into the Ordnance Bureau, which is also merged into this.

The reason why Xu Jingchang, a noble, should be responsible, instead of changing Wenchen, is because the heavy industry in it is directly involved in the production of weapons and equipment of the Ming army, and there is no way to hand it over to Wenchen, and even if it does not involve light industry in this area, these franchised commodities are cash cows that can make money, and Zhu Di cannot hand them over to Wenchen, so they are simply merged together.

The Coal and Iron Department and the Ordnance Bureau can be regarded as Jiang Xinghuo cutting a piece of meat from the Ministry of Industry.

As for the military situation in the inner court, it doesn't matter, this is what Zhu Di said.

Yao Guangxiao is in charge of the commercial department, because the cement concrete is done, and the road will start to be paved next year, and there are a series of complicated things to negotiate with the local and central authorities.

The city shipping department is equivalent to directly holding the customs in his hands, which is the proper meaning of the question, because the policy of opening the sea and Yuguo is the president of the law change affairs Yamen has been promoting, or the abolition of the sea ban policy, which is pushed by Jiang Xinghuo, so the sea trade stall that has just been rolled out must also be under his control.

The last banking department, that is Daming Bank, this is also Jiang Xinghuo's main business, restoring the value of treasure banknotes and changing banknotes, except for Jiang Xinghuo, I'm afraid no one can figure it out.

Therefore, what I went to visit today was actually the Ordnance Bureau of the Industrial Division, which had just been integrated into the President's Law Reform Yamen, and was managed by Xu Jingchang, the soon-to-be-appointed vice president.

It's just that these haven't been announced for the time being, and we have to wait for the results of Jingcha, but the high-level side has a letter.

In fact, with the gradual success of the law reform, it is inevitable that the power of the president's law reform affairs yamen will be expanded.

It's just that Jiang Xinghuo's authority is long, and it must be something that some people don't want to see.

Weapons testing ground of the Ordnance Bureau.

After the merger of the Ordnance Bureau, the War Bureau, and the Artillery Casting Office, it has been relocated to a new site outside the city.

Mainly considering that there are too many dangerous goods that will explode, if you are not careful, it is easy to have a huge impact on the entire city of Nanjing, the rumors of the apocalypse explosion, Jiang Xinghuo has heard of it, so this kind of thing, the long pain is better than the short pain, and it is good for everyone to move out of the city as soon as possible.

And the open space outside the city also facilitates experiments with various weapons.

The new equipment to be seen today is mainly the cotton-iron composite armor that may be installed in small batches in the Beijing camp, the new artillery cast from low-phosphorus steel, and the demonstration of the arquebus equipped with paper shell fixed ammunition.

The cotton-iron composite armor painted in the standard red of the Ming Army was draped on the dummy and presented in front of everyone.

The batch that was sent to Beijing before was a special cotton-steel composite armor for high-ranking generals as a gift, and these were the cotton-iron composite armor that was really installed for ordinary soldiers.

Considering the average height of the soldiers, the size of this cotton-iron composite armor is slightly smaller than the size of the previous cotton-steel composite armor, and the overall size is even more bloated.

This kind of bloat, mainly due to the fact that in order to have the due defensive effect, the weight of the iron sheet has gone up, and the second is that taking into account the cold weather conditions in the northern combat winter, the cotton sheet is also made thicker, so it does not look so handsome, but it is warm enough to wear and has enough defense.

In addition, in the position of the chest, it is equipped with two semi-copper plates with arcs spliced together to protect the heart position and prevent it from being penetrated, in addition, there are elbows, knees and other important parts that need to be moved are also protected, plus a carb, such a set of equipment, the whole body can be said to be airtight, only showing a face.

"How much does this kind of cotton armor cost compared to piercing armor?"

"It's much cheaper, and the same set of cotton armor is about equal to a quarter of the cost of the armor."

This is actually nonsense, sixty pounds of armor, two or three thousand pieces of armor, and the total weight of cotton armor is less than thirty pounds, and the number of pieces of iron in it is only a few hundred, even if the cotton is compacted, how much money can it cost? As long as the number of iron pieces decreases, the cost will also decrease.

"What about defense?"

"The defensive effect against knives, guns and bows and crossbows is slightly weaker than that of piercing armor, which can probably have an effect of six or seven percent, but the defensive effect against blunt weapons such as firecrackers and bones is significantly higher than that of piercing armor."

Zhu Di and Zhu Neng personally tested it, fifty steps away, they couldn't shoot through with a standard step bow, and when they got close to twenty steps, the cotton armor could shoot through, and the bow shot at the armor was still similar to a hedgehog.

Zhu Di was not too disappointed, after all, the armor is generally several layers of armor, and the cotton armor is much thinner, and it is normal to be shot through the bow at close range.

But if the battle really reached a distance of twenty paces, to be honest, it didn't matter if it was shot through by a bow and arrow.

Then, Zhu Di and Zhu Neng used the standard waist knife of the Ming army to chop the cotton armor and the armor, just chopping, the resistance effect of the cotton armor and the armor is almost the same, and there is no obvious difference, only by changing the spear to poke and stab, can the difference be seen.

The armor can resist the spear's stab at close range, but only some areas of the cotton armor can do it, that is, the upper torso part of the body where the nail leaves are relatively thick and protected, and the arms and thighs are not enough and the armor is not thick enough, so the spear can still cause effective damage.

If it is only carried out here, then cotton nails are obviously low-end products that only have disadvantages and no advantages.

But the next test surprised Zhu Di and others.

The most feared thing is the blunt object, often the armor is fine, and the people inside have been smashed, but the test of the cotton armor's resistance to blunt impact is very effective.

Whether it is a meteor hammer or a bone duo, hitting the cotton armor, the cotton armor can effectively absorb blunt damage and protect the soldiers inside.

The test of cotton armor in fire resistance is also good.

Lead bullets can effectively penetrate the armor at close range, but it cannot penetrate the cotton armor with fewer and thinner leaves, because another layer of compacted thick cotton sheets on top of the cotton armor can fully absorb the kinetic energy of the lead bullet.

After some testing, Zhu Di also had a good idea of whether to choose a new type of cotton and iron composite armor as the equipment of the Northern Ming Army.

As the pinnacle of heavy warriors in the Song, Liao, and Jinxia periods, zha armor belongs to the product of the arms race, everyone is piling up the defensive quality of the armor, relying on the iron can corps to be the winner on the battlefield, if you don't make the armor stronger, you will be at an obvious disadvantage.

But now the times are different, the Ming Dynasty of this era, there is no opponent similar to Liao Jinxia to the Song Dynasty, so the defense of the armor is almost the same, it does not need to be perfect, perfection requires a great cost, and the armor of ordinary soldiers, the first option that needs to be considered is cost performance.

Moreover, in addition to being able to keep warm in the north, from the perspective of the development trend of future wars, firearms are also an important highlight.

Therefore, the cotton armor, which costs only a quarter of the armor, is almost the same as the armor in terms of anti-splitting and chopping, and slightly inferior in puncture resistance, but it has a more outstanding performance in anti-blunt weapons and firearms, and combined with the most critical cost performance, it is attractive enough.

"Now the armor rate in Beijing is about eighty percent, of which forty percent are cowhide armor, two percent are iron armor, and two percent are pierced armor, if 200,000 people are dressed in cotton armor, how long will it take? Decade? Twenty years? ”

This question was obviously asked by Zhu Di casually, one is that the Beijing camp does not need to wear all the armor at all, and the other is that for the era of cold weapons, the current eighty percent armor rate, although it is a mixture of cowhide armor and iron armor and piercing armor, it is already the elite of the elite.

In addition, Zhu Di didn't ask how much money he had, because cotton and iron were free for the country, and what limited the production of armor was the number of labor, generally speaking, the more skilled workers, the faster the armor production.

If a skilled craftsman is responsible for hand rubbing production alone, usually a set of armor, it takes about three months, and four sets can be produced a year, but in reality this is obviously not the case, if it is a collective division of labor, this efficiency will be much higher, generally a workshop of 100 people, a year can produce thousands of sets of armor.

"If there are 200,000 people, it will take about five years, and 40,000 sets of cotton armor can be produced in a year."

Jiang Xinghuo's answer was obviously a bit unexpected by everyone.

Zhu Di originally thought that even if he went all out, the annual output would be between 10,000 and 20,000 sets, but who would have thought, Jiang Xinghuo directly reported 40,000 sets to him.

"How?" Qiu Fu was a little incredulous.

"Three reasons."

Jiang Xinghuo quickly answered his questions.

"The first reason is the compacted thick cotton sheets, which can be contracted to the handicraft workshop in Jiangnan to do, and the tasks that female workers can complete do without the need for manual labor here."

"The second reason is the nail made of iron armor, now in addition to grinding machines and boring machines, lathes, drilling machines, milling machines, planing machines, broaching machines, sawing machines and other machine tools have begun to be trial-installed, with machine tools, in the processing of the nail can greatly improve efficiency, and the cotton nail piece, not like the nail needs to be pierced tightly, the processing technology is therefore much simpler."

"The third reason is that the military war bureau that has been merged now, the workshop responsible for making armor, and the workshop for casting cannons and guns, are all assembly line operations."

"Assemblies?"

Zhu Di was curious about the word.

Jiang Xinghuo directly asked Xu Jingchang to take them to visit the armor workshop not far away.

I saw that in the armor workshop, the craftsmen in charge of different jobs were busy, and the clothes they wore marked their craftsman rank.

Jiang Xinghuo divided craftsmen into two types: technicians and technicians, technicians are junior technicians, intermediate technicians, senior technicians, and special technicians, and technicians are apprentices, junior workers, intermediate workers, and senior workers.

Different levels receive different basic salaries, and then bonuses are paid according to the piecework rate.

As for how to assess, it is mainly based on professional and technical level, not age.

Jiang Xinghuo extremely hates the situation of ranking seniority and relying on the old to sell the old in a system.

Although the craftsmen of this era are generally older and more skilled, this is not always the case, and the role of assessment is to sift the bastards to where they should be.

Seeing a group of figures being embraced in, the craftsmen had solemn expressions on their faces, and their movements were fast, and they seemed to be more focused and serious than usual.

Zhu Di quickly saw the doorway.

In the assembly line, a mechanic is only responsible for one component, and then handed over to the technician at the right station to continue to the next step.

In this way, it is obvious that it can greatly improve efficiency.

Some of the work that cannot be carried out on the assembly line is handed over to the technician to deal with, that is, hand rubbing.

No way, although the assembly line can improve the efficiency of some repetitive work, there are some things that must be rubbed by hand.

After each nail leaf is processed by a technician, it looks shiny and dazzling, which makes people shine and is very pleasing to the eye.

Zhu Di nodded and exclaimed: "Sure enough, it is a law that benefits the country and the people!" is worthy of being a national teacher, and he can come up with such a method. ”

The corners of Jiang Xinghuo's mouth twitched, in fact, he had already told Zhu Di in the recital, it is estimated that Zhu Di either swept it at a glance, or looked at it seriously but didn't understand it, and then he didn't ask for much understanding.

However, the high efficiency of this assembly line production still left a deep impression on Zhu Neng, Qiu Fu, Ru Yu and others who came to visit.

A simple change has increased the production efficiency by several times, and Jiang Xinghuo's wisdom is really like the abyss.

Of course, the most critical point is that in this way, many standard weapons can be quickly assembled in batches.

Yes, for a large empire, if a standard weapon or armor can be installed within five years, it can be called "fast".

And Hu Yuancheng's artillery project made of low-phosphorus steel was also unexpected.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! ”

Steel and brass cannons fired at the same time, and the entire range trembled.

Although the caliber is the same, it is obvious that the steel cannon has a stronger durability than the copper cannon, and the barrel of the copper cannon begins to heat and turn red when it is constantly fired, while the steel cannon is not affected in the slightest.

"You can't fight anymore, you're going to blow up again."

"Let's stop."

"Good stuff!"

Looking at the copper cannons that had turned red on the shooting range, and the steel cannons that had basically not changed much, Zhu Neng exclaimed: "If such things are installed in the army in large quantities, the victory of the future war will definitely belong to the Ming Dynasty!" ”

Although Zhu Neng regretted that he did not personally command the battle of Annan, Zhu Neng was already very clear about the role of artillery in attacking fortifications and field battles, so he also had a clearer understanding of the position of firearms in future wars, plus Jiang Xinghuo's reasons were not as exclusive as before.

Now when I saw a low-phosphorus steel cannon that could be fired at a high intensity without exploding, I suddenly felt a little eager to hunt.

For example, in the Shenji Battalion in Beijing, there is an artillery unit of Wei, more than 5,000 people are enough to serve hundreds of artillery, and hundreds of cannons are fired together in a real battle, this picture Zhu Neng didn't dare to think.

"That's right!"

Zhu Di also nodded approvingly and said: "In the past, I only half-believed in the future of firearms that the national teacher said, but now that the actual battles have been fought one after another, now if we are allowed to return to Jingnan with these firearms and fight against those firearms troops in Ping'an, I am afraid it will be a direct way of fighting." ”

When Zhu Di saw this artillery just now, it was like seeing a treasure, and he couldn't wait to make a thousand or ten thousand doors for this thing immediately.

However, ideas are just ideas, and it is very difficult to actually do so.

Although the cost of steel cannons is much cheaper than copper cannons that directly consume wealth, the manufacture of steel cannons requires the consumption of a large amount of coking coal and ore enchanted with molten steel, and corresponding technical support is required.

But no matter what, now the cannon is on the right track.

"Where's this?"

Under the leadership of Xu Jingchang, everyone went to another workshop, a workshop responsible for manufacturing and assembling paper shell fixed ammunition.

Looking at the white paper-shell ammunition, Zhu Di asked with some curiosity.

This kind of paper shell fixed ammunition is not the same as the paper shell fixed ammunition used in Jiang Xinghuo's previous life Dresser rifle.

The kind of paper shell fixed ammunition has appeared from the era when the front loading gun is about to transition to the rear loading gun, so the firing at that time used the thunder mercury fire cap as the activation principle of the firearm, the flintlock pistol has been replaced, and the paper shell fixed ammunition is to wrap the bullet, the cartridge stock, the primer, and the cylindrical paper shell for propelling medicine into a whole.

But the paper shell fixed ammunition that is made now has no such thing as a primer, so there is no way, you can't get it.

The principle of the firing pistol is that after the trigger is pulled, the firing needle on the bolt pierces the paper shell, hits the primer, and then ignites the gunpowder to shoot out the projectile.

Therefore, the key research and development direction of the flintlock is still in the transition from the arquebus to the flintlock gun, and now there are eyebrows, but it is estimated that it will not be possible to get it out in a few years, and the key technology of the flintlock gun is not so easy to overcome, and it needs to be tested repeatedly. Although the flintlock gun is very simple to say, it is nothing more than that the flint clamp drives the flint, and hits the iron sheet covered on the gunpowder pot to produce a spark seed, and then the spark seed falls into the powder pot and then launches a projectile, the principle is very simple, but it cannot be mass-produced, and the stability of the tested things is very poor, and it is not even as stable as the arquebus.

If it is a flintlock of this quality, it is also torturous to produce it in batches, and there is no need at all.

In addition to the transition from arquebus to flintlock, in fact, the Ordnance Bureau is also trying to make a small batch of handcuffs with a reed wheel structure, which belongs to a small variant of the transition to flintlocks, the main components of the reed wheel handcuffs are the grinding wheel and flint, clockwork, and the flint clamp is already wound to the grinding wheel at the same time, and then when the person pulls the trigger, the flint clip can take the flint to hit the grinding wheel, at this time the grinding wheel has released the clockwork, and then it can produce sparks, and the sparks can be ignited when they fall into the part where the gunpowder is placed to ignite the gunpowder and launch the projectile.

It's complicated to say, but it's actually highly similar to the principle of one thing, and that's the lighter.

The moment the Zippo lighter rubs it with its hands, it is the whole process of igniting the spark with the reed wheel handcuff.

However, this kind of thing belongs to the nature of experimental research and development, and the production is only used as a technical reserve, and for the self-defense of special groups, the cost is relatively high, and it cannot be mass-produced at all.

And it is likely that it will not be able to catch fire at a critical moment.

The guns of goodness belong to yes.

The lowest paper shell can be directly ignited by the fire rope, the cotton in the middle layer plays the role of the bullet stock, and the upper paper shell is loaded with a projectile, and the fire is fired, and the paper shell in the middle and upper layers will be launched from the gun, and the projectile will fly out of the paper shell during the launch.

In this way, the step of compacting the gunpowder and then placing the projectile can be omitted, and there is still a big gap between the fixed paper shell bullet that can really play the role of the bottom fire, but for the gunner, although it is only a step of work, it can play a very big role on the battlefield.

Because the steps required for a normal launch of the arquebus are very cumbersome, you must first stuff the gunpowder into the mouth of the gun with a small spoon, then stuff cotton as a stock, and then stuff the projectile, and finally have to send a long rod to compact the projectile (improve air tightness), and with this kind of paper shell fixed ammunition, you only need to stuff the projectile into it, it doesn't matter if there is no primer firing pin or anything like that, anyway, the arquebus is ignited by the fire rope.

After seeing the actual demonstration, everyone quickly understood the significance of this little invention.

"What about quality? The paper shell is very damp. ”

"The paper used for these paper shells is all special, and it will definitely not be easily deformed by moisture, don't worry."

Xu Jingchang said with a smile: "Besides, even if there is really a quality problem, the factory must have been strictly inspected, and these craftsmen can run?" The number of each batch can be checked. ”

After that, Xu Jingchang lifted a box containing paper shell bullets, and the number was written on it, and by following the number, it could be directly found that the craftsmen were responsible for the production.

This is the old rule, when the Hongwu Dynasty casts the cannon, whoever the craftsman is surnamed is, it is directly cast on the barrel, and none of them can run if there is a quality problem.

"Haha, that's just as well."

After listening to his words, Zhu Neng and Qiu Fu immediately laughed loudly, they knew that Xu Jingchang must have exaggerated, something new, there must be no problem, it is impossible, but in front of the emperor, they can only say this, so the two of them also covered up the past for Xu Jingchang, lest Zhu Di be more serious, and have to test the fire more on the spot.

"The yield of paper shell bullets is guaranteed, but it is not realistic to say that there is no problem at all, and there are always duds or jams for various reasons, so we can only say that we should try to avoid them."

However, since Jiang Xinghuo has already made his words clear, it doesn't hurt.

Zhu Di nodded, hearing what Jiang Xinghuo meant.

The relationship between the bullet and the firearm is adaptable, sometimes it causes a dud or a stuck bullet, it is not necessarily that the bullet is problematic, it may also be that the firearm itself is damp in the rain, or the caliber is not accurate when casting, which is possible.

Of course, as long as there is a paper shell fixed ammunition, then its effect is by no means comparable to that of normal lead bullets, and the speed of fire firing by the firecrackers will be greatly increased because of the appearance of this little thing.

This means that the speed at which the firebolt troops slaughter the enemy will become faster.

Once this efficiency exceeds a certain threshold, the greatest significance is that it will be possible to achieve "riding on foot" in the true sense, and at that time, the cavalry will probably be reduced from the protagonist of the battlefield stage to a supporting role.

(End of chapter)