After reading the Zhang family's marriage proposal, Zhu Ming sat at his desk and thought seriously about the pros and cons of this marriage on him.

It doesn't seem to do much harm, but it doesn't do much good.

Mainly because the Zhang family is in Jiangxi and there is no one in an important position at present.

However, after the two sides got married, once Zhu Ming raised troops, he would make the Zhang family want to die.

Zhu Ming originally planned to find a Western army general's family to marry, such as a farming family, a folding family, and the like. But gradually found that it is not operable, the marriage between civil ministers and military generals was normal in the early Song Dynasty, and gradually became less in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty.

If you really want to get married, it will not be too late to get married after the army, and it is estimated that it will become a concubine by then.

Zhu Ming even wrote a letter in pinyin, discussing the time of the rebellion in detail, and basically determined three time points:

First, after the Fangla uprising, he took advantage of the officers and soldiers to go to Liangzhejiang and responded in Hanzhong.

Second, after Tong Guan's invasion of Liao, the elite of the Western Army suffered heavy losses, and it was a good time to rebel.

Third, after the Jingkang Change.

Zhu Guoxiang's reply was that it was too risky to respond to the Fangla uprising, at least until Tong Guan invaded Liao.

Zhu Ming basically agrees with his father's point of view, but feels that Fang La's strategy can also be successful.

The main force of the Fangla rebel army was wiped out in a year, and it was purely hit by the muzzle of the gun. At that time, the official army had already gathered in Gyeonggi, and all kinds of logistics were also properly handled, Tong Guan was going to lead the army to attack Liao, and he learned that the Fangla uprising could only run to suppress it.

The elite of the whole country with complete armor and sufficient logistics saved even the time to gather troops, and directly pulled them to fight Fangla. How can it hold on?

To be honest, if Fang La hadn't rebelled, Tong Guan would not have fought so ugly. At least there is no shortage of food, grass and ordnance, and the morale must be much higher.

After Tong Guan suppressed Fang La, regardless of the victory or defeat, the Great Song Dynasty collapsed financially, because the southeast region was full of holes.

When the time came, Zhu Ming took the opportunity to occupy Hanzhong and Sichuan, cutting off another source of wealth for the Great Song Dynasty. Even if the elite of the Western Army is still there, the food and salary are seriously insufficient, and it is easy to complain halfway when Zhu Ming is brought to suppress it.

After all, it is logistics that fights a war!

Just like Zong Ze in history, there is no possibility of "crossing the river" at all, because he has no logistics to speak of.

"The Last Affair of Zongze" was compiled by the descendants of the Zong family, and a large amount of content did not match the official history, and it was also different from the performance of other Wenchen at that time.

What kind of righteous people from all over the world gathered in Jingshifan 2 million people, grain and grass can still be eaten for half a year, this kind of record can only be half believed.

Zong Ze's anti-gold spirit cannot be questioned, and most of the three calls to cross the river are true, and he must belong to the national hero.

But Zong Ze's descendants said that the grain and grass can last for half a year, which is pure nonsense.

The year before, there was a great famine in Gyeonggi, the Cao River was blocked again, and there were countless rebels waiting to be fed.

In order to fulfill the lie, the descendants of the Zong family also said that Zong Ze was ordered to dredge the Cao River, and it would be done in seven days. But the real situation is that Zong Ze did not receive this order at all, and before Zong Ze went to Tokyo, the Tokyo guards at that time were already dredging.

It was of little use if it was dredged, and the grain transported to Tokyo was barely alleviating the famine.

Because the Jin soldiers were ravaging the prefectures and counties, the transportation system had collapsed, and it was the limit that it could transport several waves of grain, and the follow-up grain transportation activities were completely at a standstill.

Zong Ze's biggest problem at that time was not what to eliminate the Jin soldiers, but how to get food for disaster relief and let the huge rebel army from all walks of life have enough to eat.

The actual situation is: "Bianliang is hungry, the rice liter is 300 yuan, a rat is hundreds of dollars, people eat algae, locust leaves, Tao is dead, and there is no spare gizzard." ”

Even if Zhao Gou has the backbone and dares to run back to defend Tokyo, he will have to starve with Zong Ze.

Jin Bing also knew what the situation was in Tokyo, they had already scavenged the money during the Jingkang period, there was no money and no food there, what were they going to do? From the beginning to the end, the Jin soldiers did not attack Tokyo again, but went around the four directions to attack the city.

The greatness of Zong Ze lies in the fact that he dares to do anything and is willing to be the mainstay.

And the means of controlling people are clever, and they can appease countless hungry rebels, and millions of hungry soldiers and civilians have not caused a big mess.

However, it is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, and no food is no food.

Half a year before Zong Ze's death, Zhao Gou repeatedly ordered the resumption of Cao Yun, but he had not recovered until Zong Ze died, and the officials responsible for supervising the transportation of Cao grain were also punished. (The Cao River needed to be dredged by the people every year, and at that time, many sections of the river were seriously silted, and the imperial court was no longer able to recruit the people.) ）

His successor, Du Chong, could not appease the situation at all, because there was already "cannibalism" inside and outside Tokyo, so he simply threw away the mess and ran away with his troops.

Zhu Ming considered the pros and cons of various pros and cons, and decided to accept the Zhang family's proposal.

One is to get some dowry money, and the other is to look at the follow-up influence of the Zhang family.

This practice is quite shameless!

He wrote a reply letter, and Zhu Ming asked Bai Sheng to send it over.

He rode out of the city on horseback and took a boat to the ironworks.

Hydraulic hammers have been built, and a reservoir has been built to stabilize the flow of water. The use of hydraulic cylinder trucks, pumping water into the reservoir, can also be used in dry seasons to step on the cylinder car - the Southern Song Dynasty already has windmills, I don't know if the Northern Song Dynasty has one.

The cistern is equipped with a sluice gate that controls the speed of the hammer by regulating the flow of water.

The turbine can drive four hammers at the same time, allowing four blacksmiths to work at the same time.

At this time, the craftsmen were obviously not skilled, and the forging was a bit of a hurry, and it was estimated that they would be able to fully master it in two days.

"How's the hydraulic hammer?" Zhu Ming asked.

Tu Shen smiled: "Save effort." ”

If you build a bigger and taller reservoir and drive more hammers at the same time, you will be much more efficient.

At present, two of the four forging hammers are forging and filling steel, and two are forging and refining steel.

Zhu Ming was already writing to the emperor, saying that he could forge weapons here, and asked the imperial court to allocate funds to forge a hundred steel swords.

This thing is valuable, as long as the imperial court is willing to buy it, Zhu Ming is willing to sell it, and the ironworks and forges must have profits. Even if hundreds of steel swords are forged, it will not improve the combat effectiveness of the officers and soldiers, because this kind of high-level weapon must be issued to the generals.

Armor can also be made, depending on whether the court gives money or not.

If the imperial court does not allocate funds, Zhu Ming can only use the Jinzhou treasury and store the armor directly in the Jinzhou Staff Arsenal after making it.

After looking at the hydraulic forging hammer for a while, Zhu Ming went to look at the fire hammer again.

There are only two craftsmen who are busy, and Zhu Ming directly makes birds.

Don't think that the bird gun is backward, its structure is relatively complex, and it also belongs to precision firearms in the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

With the current smelting and forging process, two tightly wrapped pipes had to be made from wrought iron. The hole was very small at first, and it was necessary to use a steel drill bit to drill into it all the way, and it took a month to drill the barrel of a bird's gun.

The Ming Dynasty's "Wubei Zhi" complained that the officers and soldiers were unusable, and also gave specific reasons.

That is, in order to catch up with the progress, and the craftsmen in order to save trouble, they directly forged into iron pipes and did not drill them at all. This results in different barrel thicknesses and holes of varying sizes, some can hold three or four bullets, and some can't fit even one bullet. In addition, there are all kinds of problems, anyway, as soon as the shot is fired, it will explode.

After the trial production of the bird gun is completed, Zhu Ming will continue to build it.

Only four craftsmen were assigned to make the barrel, and one craftsman was assigned to make the other parts. Each craftsman takes 40 days to make a handful, and can make 36 firecrackers a year.

In the first year, they were trained in gun-making skills, and from the second year onwards, two apprentices were placed in each of them.

At the beginning of the rebellion, there were not many birds, and the officers and soldiers faced were not strong, but they were only used to win by surprise.

……

Zhang Gen received Zhu Ming's reply and handed it to his wife with a smile: "Send someone back to Dexing and arrange for your daughter's makeup." ”

"Maybe we can get married by the end of the year." Huang said happily.

The two were very satisfied with this marriage, and they didn't know that they were going to be cheated.

A few days later, Zhu Ming arranged for a matchmaker to propose marriage, brought two geese as gifts, and asked for the woman's birthday by the way.

"Dalang, please take it." Huang even changed his name.

Zhu Ming took the eight-character paper with both hands: "Thank you, old lady." ”

The woman couldn't see the guest at this time, so Zhang Jinping hid in the back room and took the maid to peek.

After the business was done, Zhang Gen invited Zhu Ming to taste tea and asked: "I came to Jinzhou for half a month, I really can't find anything to do, can Da Lang give me some errands?" ”

Zhu Ming asked, "Sir, but you want to train sergeants?" ”

Zhang Gen nodded and said, "As the deputy envoy of the regimental training, I do have the responsibility of training sergeants. ”

Zhu Ming said: "There is no horse army in Jinzhou, and the infantry army is more envoys. Before I came, there were not enough sergeants, and my predecessor ate a lot of empty pay. I have not recovered these for the time being, and my military salaries have been diverted for other purposes, and I have not embezzled any of them. ”

"I don't suspect that Da Lang is empty." Zhang Gen said.

Zhu Ming made his attitude clear: "The money and food of the state government are not enough, and it is impossible to fully train the Xiang army. ”

Zhang Gen said: "Thirty people are enough, and they will be paid and paid in full. ”

"Yes." Zhu Ming promised to give food and salary to 30 people, and recruited young and strong soldiers for Zhang Gen to train.

This old man is really not idle, in history he was demoted to the deputy envoy of regimental training, and he was re-promoted by exterminating the thieves. The Huaixi Jukou was raging for two years, and the imperial court could not send many officials to deal with it, so Zhang Gen ran with a group of township soldiers to exterminate it.

Zhang Gen added: "The armament in the staff store seems to be useless. ”

Zhu Ming said: "There is a shortage of craftsmen in the Jinzhou Academy, and I am too lazy to recruit again. I have an iron-smelting yard in the mountains north of the city, and I can build some ordnance, which can be purchased at the expense of the state government. ”

"Then let's build thirty pairs of armor first." Zhang Gen said happily.

Zhu Ming immediately agreed, as if it was for himself, and he could use public funds for reimbursement.

went back with the woman's birthday, and Zhu Ming planned to explain the matter of marrying a wife to Zheng Yuanyi.

As soon as he returned to the state office, he was informed that two young people surnamed Wei had come to Xiangzhou.

These are the two grandsons sent by Wei Tai, who should have come after the state test last year. At that time, there was a flood, there were homeless people and thieves, and they were entangled in trivial matters, which has been delayed until now.

"Wei Yingwu (Wei Yingshi) meets Taishou!" The brothers saluted.

Zhu Ming happily held his hand: "Sit down and talk, when I bought grain last year, thanks to Wei's generosity." ”

Wei Yingwu said: "My ancestor heard that Taishou has learned from others, and I hope that my brothers can study under Taishou. ”

"I don't dare to be a shallow learner in the next place, just discuss each other's knowledge." Zhu Ming plans to bring these brothers here to see if he can brainwash them, and if he can succeed, it will also be a help to attack Xiangyang in the future.

(End of chapter)