Chapter 259

Cheng Shijie guessed that Catherine was obsessed with the cross-era naval guns of the Ning Navy, and he didn't know that she was not at ease, but he didn't expect Catherine to come to this trick.

Using war horses for artillery, it can be said that the role of war horses is very huge, for the Ning Navy, it is very important, first of all, the mobility of the troops, as the Ning Navy gradually phased out cold weapons, and the transformation to hot weapons, the problems faced are becoming more and more urgent.

The supplies in the era of cold weapons were very small, and military rations accounted for the majority, which was great plus all kinds of arrows for consumption, tents for soldiers to camp, and one-third of spare weapons, even if they were alive.

But the problem is that hot weapons need to carry the same weight as cold weapons, all kinds of shells, artillery, bullets, grenades, which requires a large increase in the amount of baggage transport. For example, the military literacy of later generations basically knew that there were only one or two thousand people in a regiment, but a division with three regiments under its jurisdiction had more than 10,000 people, and no matter how it was calculated, they could not make up so many people.

In fact, in division-level strategic units, the biggest variables are artillery and artillery, baggage transportation, communications support, battlefield medical care, and logistics.

In fact, the same is true of the current Ning Navy, a three-inch cannon is 400 kilograms, for the infantry army, it is not a big problem and barely acceptable, but the four-inch gun has a ton and a half weight, which is too difficult for transportation in the era of cold weapons.

Some people may say that it can increase the number of war horses, but the problem is that the war horses themselves need a lot of forage, under normal circumstances, you need to eat thirty catties of forage, add one more war horse, and the logistics of the army will increase the consumption of ten people, although it is said that the shire horse can pull and consign, and eat more.

However, the problem is that the number of war horses is large, and it is necessary to increase the number of soldiers responsible for taking care of the war horses, so that it is also necessary to increase the difficulty of transferring troops.

But the British Sharma does not have this problem. At the same time, when farmers plough the land, a shire horse can plow twenty or thirty acres of land a day, and only one adult can plow twenty or thirty acres of land.

"Don't even think about it, Ben Shuai won't sell it!"

Looking at Cheng Shijie's entangled look, Catherine was very happy. In fact, as early as the first rejection by Cheng Shijie, she began to investigate Daming.

This is the basic operation of a businessman, and Catherine knows this very well. After her investigation, she found that although Daming has a lot of land, but in terms of horses, there is a lack of good horses, especially excellent horse breeds.

There are several characteristic horse breeds in Daming, such as Mongolian horses, Hequ horses, Kazakh horses, Yunnan (Yunnan horses), three hippos, Ili horses and so on. However, these horses are not of a good breed compared to European and African horses.

"Ten horses, one cannon!"

"Don't even think about it!"

Cheng Shijie refused without hesitation.

"It's not too late for you to listen to me and then refuse, I mean, ten horses of each kind, here are twelve kinds of horses, Scottish warmbloods, Shire horses, English thoroughbreds, Dutch warmbloods, Trekena horses, Horstein horses, Hanoverian horses, Holstein horses, Oldenburg horses, Belgian warmbloods, Sierra French horses, Arabian horses, ten horses of each kind, five males and five females, a total of one hundred and twenty horses, one cannon for another, how about it?"

Cheng Shijie was secretly surprised by Catherine's generosity, you must know that in addition to horses like Sharma, who are not good at fighting, the other eleven kinds of horses are top racing horses.

For example, the British thoroughbred, which is the fastest horse in the world, has not been surpassed by any other breed for nearly a thousand years. What's more, the breed is genetically stable and adaptable, making it recognized as the finest riding horse breed in the world.

The Arabian horse is the oldest horse breed on the planet and is believed to be the origin of all horse breeds worldwide. This horse has outstanding endurance and is the horse of choice for long-distance training and endurance training, as well as the main basic pedigree of thoroughbreds. To a certain extent, this kind of horse can be stronger than China's Xianbei horse.

Xianbei horses have good endurance and fast charging speed, and can be equipped with heavy cavalry, that is, the first war horse of heavy cavalry in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties and Sui and Tang dynasties. It's a pity that the bloodline of this war horse was mixed up in the Song Dynasty.

At the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, it attached great importance to Ma Zheng, and in the basic framework, there were group pastors, Taifu Temple and driving department. The Shepherd Department is the main body of the state, responsible for the breeding, breeding and healing of horses, and its chief is the Privy Councillor, who goes down every year to inspect the breeding and breeding of horses.

During the Song Dynasty, in order to prevent officials from forming small groups and forming parties for personal gain, the Song Dynasty transferred officials very frequently, and the pastoral officials were no exception, and they had to change every two to three years, and they could not stay in one post for a long time. Naturally, they can't make any achievements, and they are often transferred away as soon as they are familiar with the business, and in the long run, the ability of officials to adapt to their posts is insufficient, and the quality of the horses they raise is naturally poor.

After the right to herd horses was decentralized to the people, the common people were already living in poverty, and horses were only raised as livestock as ordinary animals. Just feed the horses and grass, and manage the horses in an extensive manner, as if the horse was meant to fight, it cannot work like a cow, and it cannot be crossed like a cow to produce a good breed. As everyone knows, in this process of reproduction, the number of excellent varieties crossed will gradually decrease. Sure enough, in the Song Dynasty, China's horse breeds were completely yellowed.

The Dutch Warmblood, Trekna, and Horstan horses are suitable for short-distance charging and have the advantage of being fast, but they are not very much needed by the world, but the Hannover Warmblood is a German horse through and through, and it can be seen in later generations in show jumping and horse racing teams around the world. The Hannover Warmblood is used exclusively in equestrian competitions such as steeplechasing, horse farm equestrian, three-day cross-country and carriage racing.

In fact, this is one of the best horses, and the Holstein horse, the Oldenburg horse, the Belgian warmblood, and the Sierra France horse are also good at jumping various obstacles, making them the best choice for war horses.

If you have these good horses to improve the genes, Cheng Shijie can breed a war horse with the characteristics of the Ming Dynasty, in fact, the Ming Dynasty only does not have an excellent war horse, mainly because of the needs of the environment.

Take the ancient Roman Empire as an example, each of them had about 5,500 Roman legions, but even in the most powerful era of the Roman Empire, a total of 39 Roman legions were stationed in the Roman Empire of more than 5.5 million square kilometers. The total strength was less than 200,000, including about 12,000 cavalry, and there were only 21 Roman legions at the lowest period, with a total strength of more than 100,000.

Many netizens like to assume that what would happen if the Roman Empire and the Han Empire were against each other, and if they were really right, it would be a joke, because the two sides were not the same size. Because during the Han and Han dynasties, the number of conventional troops remained between 600,000 and 800,000, and the gap between the two sides was three to four times.

During the Han Wu Empire, the Han Dynasty had the strength to organize an expedition to the Great Wan Kingdom, but the Roman Empire did not have the strength to expedition thousands of miles. There is no comparison at all, with the strength of the three families of Cao, Liu and Wu during the Three Kingdoms, just take out one and sweep the Roman Empire.

If the war horse is compared to a tank, China chooses a character ratio, even in the Han Dynasty, it has obtained the famous sweat and blood BMW in Central Asia, as well as the West Pole horse, but the problem is that this kind of war horse is too delicate, not easy to feed, easy to get sick, easy to die, but China's various war horses, whether it is a Mongolian horse, or a Hequ horse, as well as a Dian horse, an Ili horse, and a three-river horse, its living habits are almost the same, and it also has a strong advantage, not too dependent on the environment, easy to raise, hard-working.

Therefore, during the period of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang army had more than 700,000 horses, and could organize tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of cavalry at any time, and expeditions in all directions.

If it is concentrated, it is really not less than the number of Jiannu's cavalry, but although the quantity is there, the quality is really inferior to Jiannu's cavalry.

Overall, now the Ming Dynasty has long been inferior to the past, the successive dynasties have only chosen the quantity to make up for the lack of quality, if the dynasty is unified, the decree can be issued traditionally, you can concentrate the strength of the whole country, and the Ming cavalry can also press the Mongols to fight.

"Fifteen horses of each kind, a total of one hundred and eighty horses, one cannon!"

"Don't change!"

Catherine gritted her teeth and said, "Do you know how much it will cost me to spend these fifteen horses?" ”

"Does it have anything to do with me?"

"I need to spend a full 300,000 Ducats!"

"It's just more than 280,000 taels of silver!"

"Don't you think it's too much to sell a cannon for more than 280,000 taels of silver?"

"There are cheap artillery, you can buy them from the Portuguese, their naval guns cost two thousand five hundred taels of silver for a large caliber, a few hundred taels of silver for a small caliber, and two hundred and eighty thousand taels of silver is enough for you to buy hundreds of artillery!"

"Is this comparable?"

"Haha, you also know that there is no comparison!"

Catherine began to increase the price little by little, from fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, all the way to twenty, and then there was no more.

In fact, she had brought with her only thirty horses of each kind this time, but because of all sorts of problems in the sea transportation, the most of his horses were now Arabian horses, and twenty-seven, and the least, the Serra de France, just twenty.

Cheng Shijie saw that Catherine really couldn't add it, so he smiled and said: "I remember I told you many times, I won't sell this cannon, why are you still thinking about it?" ”

"But you didn't say that you would never sell, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, I will never let it go."

"You really hit the south wall and don't look back!"

"How many horses do you have?"

"Two hundred and sixty-three horses in all!"

"Give me all these horses!"

"You've agreed to sell the cannon?"

"How is it possible, you take more than two hundred horses, you can't threaten me, I can find the Dutch, the Portuguese, and even let the Spaniards exchange this kind of war horse, you must know that there are still more than four thousand Spaniards in my hands, and their Philip IV can't watch these people die, right?"

Catherine was really speechless.

In fact, what Cheng Shijie said was right, these war horses could not threaten Cheng Shijie, as long as Cheng Shijie gave enough silver, those vampires of the Dutch East India Company would definitely do everything possible to transport these war horses over and give them to Cheng Shijie.

"You're fooling me!"

Cheng Shijie looked at Catherine and said seriously: "I'm not playing you, but really helping you!" ”

"Help me? How did you help me? ”

Cheng Shijie smiled: "The solution to the problem I gave you last time, how did you implement it in Venice?" ”

When Catherine heard this, her face softened, and she smiled: "According to the solution of His Excellency the Duke, we have carried out a pilot, first of all, we have established a mercenary legion!" ”

The Republic of the Venetian city-state established the Legion of San Marco, recruiting about six thousand mercenary soldiers from the Holy Roman Empire, and if one of these Holy Roman Empire members of a family served in the Legion of San Marco, then the members of the family would have a waiting period of five years before they could become citizens of the official Republic of Venice.

But if the family had two members who served in the San Marco Legion, the five-year waiting period could be shortened to three years, which was a great attraction for the Holy Romans.

The "service" here is, of course, different from what the Venetians call service, where the true Venetian needs to serve for five years, while the Holy Romans need eight years.

Although the Holy Romans were in Venice during their waiting period, these waiting periods, although they did not have the right to choose or to be elected, were able to enjoy various public resources provided by the government of the Republic of Venice, including the right to enroll their children in school, health care, and the right to work, invest, and reside in the Venetian polis and colonies.

Voltaire said that the Holy Roman Empire was neither sacred, nor Roman, nor Empire.

This is because the Holy Maro Empire had a system called the Electors, also known as the Seven Electors, who were the princes of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation who had the right to elect the German Emperor. All the nobles of the German territory met to elect a new king, mainly 7 people, 3 ecclesiastical feudal lords and 4 secular feudal lords. They were: Archbishop of Cologne, Archbishop of Mainz, Archbishop of Trier, Duke of Saxony, Elector of the Palatinate (or Count of the Rhineland), Marquis of Brandenburg, King of Bohemia (Czech).

This is actually a bit like the male of the Seven Kingdoms in the Qin and Autumn period, Zhou Tianzi is the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, because of the internal and external troubles between the Holy Roman Empire, the burden is extremely heavy, and the common people are unbearable.

The 6,000 St. Mark's legions, which were originally planned to be recruited, actually came to apply for more than 20,000 people, which suddenly added a large number of high-quality soldiers to the Republic of Venice.

"Isn't that good?"

"We urgently need the Duke's artillery now!"

"Catherine, I have to criticize you, you need to open up the pattern!"

"What?"

"You don't think that one cannon can change the fate of the Republic of Venice, you won't ......"

Without waiting for Cheng Shijie to finish speaking, Catherine hurriedly explained: "Your Excellency Duke, I know that it will make you very annoyed to keep pestering like this, but I really can't help it. You know, Venice is just a small city-state with a population of about 100,000 people, however, the plan to attract the population, which has just begun to be implemented, I can't bring in too many people, and if the Venetians become a minority, new problems will erupt! ”

"You can intermarry!"

Cheng Shijie said: "Learn from the Ming Dynasty, each person accepts ten concubines!" ”

"This is not a no-go, we have canons!"

"Venice is getting weaker and weaker, and if this situation is not improved, our city-state will disappear from the world!"

Catherine suddenly grabbed Cheng Shijie's hand and said almost pleadingly: "Sell us some cannons, okay?" We really needed it! ”

Cheng Shijie saw that she was worried about her country, and his heart couldn't help but soften, however, he couldn't change the principle, the development of primitive artillery and modern artillery is a layer of window paper, as long as this layer of window paper is pierced, it will be much simpler.

Cheng Shijie said puzzledly: "I said that you Italians just have a problem with your brains, you are already a big fart, and you have made a lot of city-states and republics that are hostile to each other!" What's the use of a city-state no matter how powerful it is? In the face of a country bent on devouring you, you have no power to fight back, and you can't expect every country that opposes you to be the kind of Byzantine garbage that only breathes more than the dead, right? If it were me, I would ignore the colonies outside for now, and focus on unifying the whole of Italy first, integrating the forces of the entire Italian peninsula, and then confronting the surrounding countries! ”

Catherine smiled wryly: "Unify Italy? Is it that easy! After the fall of the great Roman Empire, the whole of Italy fell apart and became a hunting ground for the great Europeans! Justinian the Great tried to reassemble these fragments into a complete map, and Emperor Trajan, Hadrian and other virtuous emperors did not give up on this dream, but they all failed! Our forefathers tried to unite all the city-state republics into a single body in a federal fashion, and together they faced an external threat, but when the danger passed, the alliance collapsed! ”

"Federal? A country that has been divided for so long plays the Federation, you guys think it's a long time, right? If you want to unify a country, there is no other way but to use steel and blood! Only through this interaction full of blood and wisdom can the broken territory be reassembled! ”

Catherine's expression was even more bitter: "Where do we have this strength?" It's good to say at sea, but on land, our army is vulnerable, let alone unify Italy, and even the city-state of Milan can't pass the pass, and the hoplites in Milan have always been a nightmare for our marines! Moreover, every time there is the slightest hint of reunification in Italy, it will immediately attract the interference of the whole of Europe, and it is not easy to unify Italy! ”

"You are also a person who is familiar with the culture of the Ming Dynasty, have you ever heard of the idiom of distant friendship and close attack? Swallow the closest and weakest city-states to your Venice with lightning speed, then digest them, integrate their forces, and then pick a weak one, and when all the weak city-states are swallowed, you will have enough strength to wrestle with those powerful countries, whether on land or at sea...... We played this set more than 2,000 years ago! ”

"After all, we are a merchant republic, and those who do business are serious, and fighting a war is not what we are best at......

"Fighting a war is not something you are good at, but this is what we are good at, you have also seen our Ning Navy fighting, what do you think of the combat effectiveness of our Ning Navy?"

"Very strong, if in Europa, the army of His Excellency the Duke can sweep through all the armies!"

"In this way, you pay for the newly recruited St. Mark's legion to be sent to Liaodong, and the commander will send someone to train you, and you have also seen the heavy armor of our Ning Navy, which is very strong, and can ignore the shooting of arrows, or ignore the swords and swords, and send your St. Marka legion to Daming, I will let my best army train them, let them train into an invincible iron-blooded army, as long as this well-trained army arrives in Venice, you Venice can sweep away the decline!"

Catherine immediately reacted: "Your Excellency, don't try to change the subject!" Back to the cannon thing! ”

"You're so smart!"

"Thanks for the compliment!"

"Cannon, I definitely can't sell it to you, this matter can't be discussed, don't say that you exchange the war horse for that kind of cannon, even if you move the whole of Venice over, I won't agree."

Catherine was disappointed.

Cheng Shijie drank the tea in the teacup in one gulp and said, "Follow me." ”

Although Cheng Shijie is reluctant to sell the breech-loading rifled gun, there is a lot of black technology in it, unless the first industrial revolution of the Ming Dynasty, with the leading technology, it is really possible to sell this kind of artillery.

Of course, Cheng Shijie was willing to sell equipment to the Venetians, for example, equipment for hoplites, and the same goes for other equipment.

Catherine followed Cheng Shijie all the way around and came to the North Port District of Jinzhou, which is the same as Lushun South Port, which is a military port, and ordinary merchant ships are forbidden to approach, let alone dock.

The same is true of the North Port District, which is located at the junction of Gaizhou and Jinzhou, and there are no people around it, so it is not really suitable as a harbor, and when the storm comes, these big ships will ask for their own blessings.

What Cheng Shijie wants to sell to Catherine now is actually a fire dragon out of the water. It is an amphibious rocket in ancient China and the ancestor of the second-stage rocket.

Under the dragon's head, on both sides of the dragon's tail, each is equipped with a half-kilogram powder keg, the four rocket fuses are gathered together, and connected with the rocket fuze in the belly of the fire dragon, during the water war, in the face of the enemy ship, three or four feet away from the water surface, ignite the four powder cartridges installed on the dragon's body, this is the first stage of the rocket, it can push the fire dragon to fly two or three miles away, and when the first stage of the rocket is burned, it will automatically ignite the rocket in the dragon's belly, which is the second stage of the rocket, at this time, several rockets are shot out of the dragon's mouth, directly to the target, causing the enemy ship to burn down.

Of course, in this historical version, after seeing this kind of rocket, Cheng Shijie put forward suggestions for improvement, first of all, the four rockets were changed to an explosive part, and nitrocellulose was used as explosive gunpowder.

Although the charge is only 679 grams, which is roughly equivalent to the power of eighteen wooden-handled grenades, what kind of damage would be caused if eighteen grenades were thrown on a wooden ship?

At least a battleship of more than 100 tons can be killed in seconds, and an immortal of 304 tons can also be severely damaged, which is quite powerful.

"Meet the Commander!"

Cheng Shijie waved his hand and said, "Is Fire Dragon No. 2 ready?" ”

"Ready!"

"Let's get started!"

"Yes!"

With Cheng Shijie's order, the technicians in the North Port District began to get busy, and Cheng Shijie and Catherine also climbed a watchtower to observe the sea.

About a mile from the harbor wharf, this is an experimental ship, and two or three miles away, at the same location, is a 400-material gunboat with a displacement of 125 tons.

"Whew!"

As a cloud of smoke rose, a fire dragon about one and a half meters long roared out and smashed into the four hundred gunboats eight hundred meters away, exploding a ball of red fire.

However, at this time, the second fire dragon also roared out, followed by the third, fourth, and quadruple fire dragon out of the water, in terms of rate of fire, the advantage is too obvious, even if it is a rear-mounted rifled gun, it still can't be compared with the rate of fire of the fire dragon out of the water.

As the four-mounted fire dragon shot out of the water, it hit four 400-material gunboats, and these four 400-material gunboats were blown up to pieces, and one of them also ignited a fire after the hit, burning until thick smoke billowed out, and the flames rose seven or eight meters high.

With Catherine's eyes, it can be concluded at a glance that if a small sail battleship is hit by such a shot, it will definitely lose its combat effectiveness, and if the heat spreads to the warehouse where the ammunition is stored, the unlucky battleship is afraid that it will be blown up on the spot!

Catherine hugged Cheng Shijie's arm excitedly: "This is exactly what I want!" Ten salvos of cannons of the same caliber will not have such an effect! Your Excellency, how the hell did you do that? ”

"It doesn't really matter how we do it, what matters is whether it's what you want!"

"Yes, that's exactly what I want, I want a hundred, I don't want two hundred of these guns! As for how much it costs, it's up to you! ”

Catherine actually thought it was a naval gun, but in fact, it was not a naval gun, but a two-stage rocket propelled by black powder.

"Really make a bid with me?"

"As long as you can provide us with two hundred of these cannons and corresponding shells within two years, you can make a price!"

Cheng Shijie was silent on the surface, but he smiled in his heart, the current fire dragon out of the water has been developed to the greatest potential, unless it is possible to make a pulsed rocket engine, it is unlikely to increase the range, and Ning Haijun is a little weak with this weapon, of course, it is still necessary to equip the fire dragon out of the water.

In close combat, you can defend yourself.

Cheng Shijie said: "I want a steed, 8,000 12 kinds of horses, of which half of them need a stallion and half a mare, and send them over within two years!" ”

"No problem!"

"I want your charts!"

"This ......"

(End of chapter)