Li Xianzhong said to Fan Wencheng: "Compared with the population that has been plundered by Jianzhou over the years, the more than 10,000 people we have rescued are just the tip of the iceberg. ”

"But it's a good start, in fact, to defend any frontier, you must rely on a sufficient population. If the border people of eastern Liaodong of the Ming Dynasty were constantly plundered by Jianzhou, the land on the border would continue to become barren because of plunder. Then it is difficult to hold out for a long time by simply relying on a strong army. ”

"If possible, I will try my best to rescue some of the people of the Ming Dynasty, Mr. Fan, I am afraid that the burden on your shoulders will be heavier by then."

After saying this, Li Xianzhong patted Fan Wencheng's shoulder heavily.

Then he said: "After hearing that Mr. Fan is Fan Wenzhenggong, I believe that you will be able to make your own contribution to stabilizing the frontier like your ancestors." ”

At this time, Fan Wencheng's whole person seemed to have been shocked.

How could he, who had read poetry and books, not understand this truth?

The powerful Central Plains Dynasty in history opened up the frontier with the army to conquer first, and then moved a large number of people, and gradually implemented Sinicization.

It is difficult to truly control the land by relying on military conquest alone.

The recovery of Vietnam during the Yongle period is a good example, and it lasted for a total of 20 years from the fifth year of Yongle to the second year of Xuande.

To be honest, the people of Liaodong, especially those bordermen, are already quite disappointed in the imperial court.

In March of the 27th year of Wanli, the emperor sent the eunuch Gao Huai to "open mines in Liaodong to collect taxes", which made the people of Liaodong miserable, and many people couldn't even stand the exploitation and took the initiative to take refuge in Jianyu.

Of course, after they went, they found out that they had been deceived and became slaves, but there was no turning back at this time.

In order to prevent these Han people from escaping back to Liaodong, Nurhachi directly ordered them to shave their hair. Because the Ming Dynasty has always offered a reward for the head of the Jianzhou Jurchens, if they flee back at this time, they will be beheaded and killed by the Ming army as a prisoner.

However, after the establishment of the Jin regime, in order to buy people's hearts, the old slaves ordered that the Han people did not need to shave their hair, which also confused some people to a certain extent.

Fan Wencheng, who was disappointed in Daming for a while, also thought about working for the Tartars, of course, this was just his wishful thinking, Jianyu didn't want to see him like a clothed Ahha, he could only be driven by his master as a slave.

But today, Li Xianzhong's words woke him up, Fan Wencheng is the 17th grandson of Fan Zhongyan, the Ming minister of the Northern Song Dynasty, and he is also the official eunuch family of the Ming Dynasty (his great-grandfather Fan Rui was the military secretary of the Jiajing Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty; His grandfather, Fan Shen, was the commander of Shenyang Wei).

How can you think of betraying Daming because of some setbacks?

At this time, he was holding back a lot of strength in his heart, and he must start from this Pingyu Fort and restore the foundation of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong little by little.

He said to Li Xianzhong: "Don't worry, young general, Fan will do his best to manage this Pingyu Fort to attract more displaced people." ”

Looking at the energetic Fan Wencheng, Li Xianzhong suddenly had a new idea.

Although he has 3,000 Ming troops stationed in Tielingwei, as well as 2,500 Liaodong iron cavalry. For a general, these soldiers and horses are indeed enough, and even some of the general soldiers may not be able to get more than 5,000 people.

But to fight against Houjin, these people are far from enough.

Now there are a lot of captured three-eyed guns and bird guns on hand, so why not train a firearm-based Pingyu guard.

After all, firecrackers are the easiest to use, and soldiers can participate in actual combat with a little training.

And no matter how elite the opponent you are facing, as long as you are hit at close range, you can basically break the armor, this kind of rookie for elite, is a sure deal.

However, he was not satisfied with the Three-Eyed Gun and the Bird Gun in his hand.

The three-eyed gun shoots too closely, and only has an effective kill of less than 30 steps, which is basically a hand-to-hand combat firearm at close range.

Although the range of the bird gun is longer, the armor-breaking distance can reach 60 steps, but it is still closer than the bow and arrow, and it can only break light armor, and this distance cannot break heavy cotton armor.

However, as a keyboard warrior who often visited forums in later generations, he still thought of a way to increase the power of the firecracker.

That is the "gunpowder granulation" technology, this technology that can increase the power of gunpowder appeared in Europe around 1400 AD, which is a revolution in gunpowder technology and an important turning point in the history of firearms.

Prior to this, people used powdered gunpowder as gunpowder (propellant) when using firearms, and there were many disadvantages when using this form of gunpowder in combat, such as inconvenient transportation, uneven combustion rate, and easy moisture.

Powdered black powder is easily squeezed together when force is applied inside the barrel, so that when ignited, it cannot be completely burned due to lack of oxygen, which reduces the power of gunpowder.

And the technology of granulated gunpowder solves these problems.

First of all, after the bumpy transportation, the granulated gunpowder will also be layered, the largest particles will run to the bottom layer of the powder keg, and the smallest particles will run to the surface of the powder keg, but this will not affect the quality and use of gunpowder.

Secondly, granulated gunpowder is also much less hygroscopic than powdered gunpowder, because the ratio of surface area to volume of granular gunpowder is smaller, and less moisture is drawn from the air.

Finally, because granular gunpowder is granular, even when pressed, they do not fit tightly to each other and do not form a "whole" like powdered black powder. The gap left between the granular gunpowder facilitates the combustion of the gunpowder by oxygen to support the combustion of the gunpowder (facilitates the diffusion of the flame), makes the combustion rate more uniform, and improves the efficiency of the gunpowder combustion.

Therefore, as long as the gunpowder is granulated, the power and range of the gunpowder will be greatly improved.

It is then ground with a wooden stick and finally wrapped in cotton cloth. Two iron plates are then squeezed to increase the specific gravity density, and then carefully crushed to the desired particle size.

It is then placed in the house and allowed to air dry naturally for 1-2 days in a damp environment.

The resulting granular black powder at least doubles the burning rate of the original black powder and increases the effective range of the gunpowder by at least 50%.

Of course, these people are now also skilled workers, so they live in Pingyu Fort, and are not allowed to contact outsiders.

The final target shot was also amazing, and ordinary birds could easily shoot through the plank 90 paces away.

Yu Wanli directly closed his mouth in surprise and said: "This is too exaggerated, 90 steps can break the light armor, and it is estimated that the heavy armor can be broken in 50 steps." ”

Moreover, this gunpowder burns sufficiently, there is less residue, and it is also convenient for a second reload.

Now there are not many craftsmen in the fort who can build bird guns, after all, the eastern Liaodong border army was used to using three-eyed guns, and most of the bird guns were used by the southern army.

For the time being, the production will not be very high, and it is estimated that it will be 50 strokes a month.

However, with the current rate of fire, it is difficult for the firearm to play a role in the field, so Li Xianzhong does not plan to develop a pure firearms unit.

He expanded the Peaceguard to 800 men, consisting of 100 sword and shield men, 200 pikemen, 200 bird gunmen, and 300 three-eyed cavalrymen.

In the formation, the shieldmen are in the front row, followed by two rows of pikemen, and finally two rows of birdmen, shooting alternately.

The cavalry was on the flanks and was armed with both three-eyed guns and sabers, which could be used in hand-to-hand combat with both firearms and sabers.

In just a few days, these Pingyu guards, composed of 50 veterans plus border people, looked quite like this, but after all, they had not experienced actual combat, and the current guard camp was still competent.

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