Zhao Xuanqi left Emperor Jingming's study and slowly walked out of the palace.

The sky was overcast and oppressive.

Snowflakes were faintly falling.

Snowflakes flutter in the wind, all over the sky

He stretched out his hand and caught a snowflake, which was a diamond-shaped snowflake, and the moment it landed in his hand, it began to melt.

He said in dismay, "It's snowing..."

It's snowing.

That means the cold is coming.

This snowflake seems to symbolize that the country is about to usher in winter, once it is not handled well, in the cold of this winter, the country may be ruined.

But if you want to recover the lost territory, or protect the foundation of the Northern Wei Kingdom, how easy is it?

At present, the imperial court can only control this area near Chang'an, and the world is full of rebellious ministers and thieves.

Whether it is the army or the people, the court is in a weak state, but anyone with a little vision can see that the court has reached its limit and has no hope of turning the tables.

The wall is down and everyone pushes it, at this moment, everyone can bully the court, and they all want to become this pusher and reap some benefits.

"But I'm still going to try!"

Zhao Xuanqi's face turned cold.

As the saying goes, God has arranged the greatest.

But sometimes you are not satisfied with God's arrangement, so you have to go against the sky and change all this!

The world is not optimistic, so he wants to do it!

If it is normal, there is indeed no chance of a reversal.

It's almost as good as re-laying the foundation and starting all over again.

But he's not prepared to follow the normal path.

Development of firearms gunpowder!

The imperial court now has so few troops, only tens of thousands of troops in this area of Chang'an City, if you want to conquer the world by means of cold weapons, it is simply a joke, and there is no chance at all.

But firearms and gunpowder are different.

This kind of cross-era weapon is crushing in this era, and once you have enough advanced firearms and gunpowder, you may not be able to recover the mountains and rivers.

Don't you see the 500,000 troops of the Wandering Army, still wiped out under the action of explosives?

With a goal, Zhao Xuanqi has motivation.

Next, he set up a factory in the area north of the city.

The name of the factory is simple: the first firearms factory!

Recruit all kinds of talents, find a large number of craftsmen and blacksmiths, and join the factory in a lifelong system.

Basically, as long as they are craftsmen in Chang'an City, they have been recruited into the factory by Zhao Xuanqi!

As long as you enter the factory, you will be a factory person in the future, you will be a factory person in life, and you will be a ghost in the factory when you die, so you must stay in the factory for life, dedicate everything to the factory, and strictly implement the confidentiality system.

The benefits that Zhao Xuanqi gave them are also very high, which can ensure that their descendants have no worries about food and clothing, live and work in peace and contentment, and will give them a lot of money to ensure that they eat and dress well!

The task of the craftsmen is simple, and that is to make muskets!

But this time, in addition to making arquebuses, Zhao Xuanqi also arranged for them to make flintlock pistols.

After all, the restrictions of the arquebus are too great, the firing speed is slow, and the weather is very limited, once the weather is windy and rainy, it can't be used, and the power is also poor, it's okay to defend the city, if it's used to attack, it's not satisfactory.

The benefits of flintlock pistols are much greater, and they are more stable, as long as a large number of flintlock pistols can be produced, then the benefits for the army are self-evident, even if they encounter bad weather outside the expedition.

In addition, another item could not be left behind, and Zhao Xuanqi also ordered another group of craftsmen to go and make bombs!

The power of a simple gunpowder explosion is too small, and it must be configured in a special way to make them into powerful black powder!

Then find a way to make explosive packs, flowering bombs, and white phosphorus bombs in batches!

Bombs are indispensable, and the role of bombs can often lead to decisive victories, more oppressive, more deterrent and more powerful than muskets.

In this ancient feudal world, the explosion of a bomb is often called a miracle, which can be called a dragon turning over, instantly blowing people to pieces, and also crushing the enemy's mind, so that the enemy has no ability to resist!

When you look at the people next to you, they explode for some reason, and when you watch all your friends die unknown, this is a particularly terrifying thing!

It all has to be on the agenda.

Only firearms can change everything!

Zhao Xuanqi knows that the production of all this will take time.

It takes a lot of time to complete the production, so start working now and don't waste a little time to prepare for future crises.

Zhao Xuanqi's vision has grown a lot over the years, and he has a unique understanding of the analysis of the general trend of the world, and he can now smell a trace of extraordinary flavor from the stability of the world.

In this regard, he patted his head: "In addition to muskets and explosives, there is another very important thing that needs to be made!" ”

"This thing is used to siege or defend the city, it is simply the best weapon!"

This thing is artillery!

The role of artillery is basically needless to say.

No one can resist a single shot, even if it is a hard city wall or gate, it can be blasted out.

And it can also strike the enemy from a distance.

If you use it properly, the enemy can't even see you, and you can bomb the enemy at a very long distance.

For the bow and arrow, it is absolutely right to reduce the dimensionality.

The musket was less than a tenth of the artillery.

Any military formation of the enemy, whether you are a shield formation or a heavy cavalry formation, is vulnerable in front of artillery, this is definitely a big killer!

And Zhao Xuanqi happened to know how to make artillery.

The production method of artillery is nothing more than the mud film casting method, as well as the paraffin wax production method.

In addition to this, there is a better method of iron mold casting.

The so-called mud mold casting method is to make a mold with very familiar clay and then slowly dry it in the shade, or slowly bake it through charcoal fire, only the time of molding, at least one month, the longest three months, very time-consuming.

And the most lethal point is that once the mold is not dry or the clay is not cooked, the defective product will be cast.

The method of losing wax casting cannon is to first fill the inner core of the cannon with a clay mold, dry it out, and then apply beeswax layer by layer on the clay mold to form a model of the cannon, and then paint the clay mold on the outside to form the outer fan.

After the two layers of clay molds are dry, after heating and baking, all the wax molds in the middle are melted and lost, and the entire casting model becomes an empty shell, and the molten iron is poured into it, and it is cast into a cannon.

However, the lost wax casting method can only be used in winter, and the temperature is high in spring, summer and autumn, and the wax mold in the middle will melt without waiting for the mud mold to dry thoroughly.

The iron mold cast cannon does not have these drawbacks.

In September of the twentieth year of Daoguang (1840), Yuqian, the governor of Liangjiang, a Mongolian man with a yellow banner, set up a cannon casting bureau in the provincial capital of ZJ, and Gong Zhenlin of Jiaxing County, Wang Zhongyang of Yuyao Zhi County, and Lu Zechang of Zhenhai Grain Platform were in charge of cannon casting.

Gong Zhenlin is proficient in the Taixi algorithm and has shown his talent before entering the artillery game.

When the British invaded Zhoushan, Gong Zhenlin had witnessed the steamers in the British fleet, so he built a small human-powered steamer based on his impression alone, and after a successful trial voyage in the lake, he built a large human-powered steamer.

After entering the artillery bureau, Gong Zhenlin felt that the traditional clay mold casting method was inefficient, time-consuming and laborious, and the clay mold was not only discarded after use, but also that winter was approaching, rain and snow continued, and the mud mold was even more difficult to dry.

So Gong Zhenlin came up with a solution once and for all, which was to replace the soil with iron, first use the clay type to make the iron fan, and then use the iron fan to cast the cannon. The result was a resounding success.

To put it simply, the iron mold casting method is as it intended, the molds of the mud mold casting method are made of mud and can only be used once, but the iron mold invented by Gong Zhenlin can be reused, up to a hundred times, so that the mold-making time is saved, and the iron mold is far smoother than the mud mold, made into a cannon, after removing the mold, the gun body is naturally smooth and clean, and does not need to be modified.

The clay mold will stick to the cannon body, and after the manufacturing is completed, it also needs to be carefully chiseled and polished by craftsmen, and the iron mold cannon greatly improves the efficiency of the casting gun!

Many people who travel to the end of the Ming Dynasty like to use this method so that they can quickly equip the army.

Zhao Xuanqi was able to know that this casting method was obtained from traveling through the late Ming Dynasty!

He was very fond of history, and it was in it that he learned about the iron mold cannon method, but he didn't expect it to be able to play a role here.

It turns out that when people are fine, they should read more and read more miscellaneous books, otherwise they will not be able to cross anything, how embarrassing it is!

Soon, Zhao Xuanqi issued an order to order the best craftsmen to come out, and then he taught the craftsmen how to cast cannons in iron molds, and explained the specific matters clearly.

Several masters nodded one after another.

After several masters left, Zhao Xuanqi sighed with satisfaction.

Luckily, the money is enough!

You must know that the first gun foundry is made by Zhao Xuanqi privately, and it is strictly confidential.

This kind of firearm, the fewer people who know, the better, even Emperor Jingming can't know.

This is Zhao Xuanqi's bottom line.

People are selfish, although Zhao Xuanqi is willing to be loyal to Emperor Jingming, it does not mean that he wants to tell the whole story.

The factory was built with private investment, so the money spent naturally could not be paid from the imperial court, and all of it was paid by Zhao Xuanqi out of his own pocket.

In the past, there really wasn't that much money.

However, now Zhao Xuanqi is rich and rich, and he does not lack this money at all, and all the money is derived from the fifty percent of the property obtained by the wealthy family.

Zhao Xuanqi handed over fifty percent to the imperial court, but he also kept fifty percent of his own property, and the fifty percent of his property was innumerable, even if he distributed a part to his subordinates, it was enough for him to use.

In addition, Zhao Xuanqi began to form a forbidden army!

There are not many young people in the vicinity of Chang'an City now, and it is basically impossible to recruit soldiers from ordinary people.

The prodigal army revolted, the people were seriously injured, the houses were also seriously damaged, and every family lacked manpower, so it was really impossible to get manpower to join the army.

Fortunately, Zhao Xuanqi's prison contains about 20,000 wandering thieves.

The 500,000 army was defeated, and it was impossible to kill them all, and the manpower of the Great Wall could not do it, so there were 20,000 defeated soldiers who survived.

These soldiers have gone through the battlefield, and their combat effectiveness is actually quite strong, and it is actually the best choice to transform these soldiers into the forbidden army.

In this way, Zhao Xuanqi imposed on them, first granted amnesty to the prodigal army, exempted them from the crime of rebellion, and put all the blame on the general Chongtian, pointing out that they were coerced.

Then they were given a piece of land, and a house, including some money, as a place to live.

The prodigal army received a general amnesty and bowed their heads one after another.

I thought that I would definitely die, and basically there was no chance of survival, but I didn't expect that not only was I exonerated from my crimes, but I also got a house and land, which is simply a sky-high pie!

Why are they being held hostage by the prodigals? Isn't it that they have no home, no land, no food, and really can't survive, so that's when the uprising began?

Now we have a house, we have land, and we have food!

If you give a date, you naturally have to beat a stick.

Zhao Xuanqi's requirements are very simple, that is, they must join the forbidden army, they must make up for their merits, and make contributions to the imperial court, so that the imperial court will not investigate their crimes in the future.

As a result, the prodigal soldiers who became the forbidden army, because they were worried that they would be held accountable in the future, were eager to immediately make great contributions to the imperial court!

Under this means, Zhao Xuanqi completely won the loyalty of the 20,000 forbidden troops.

Plus 20,000 Imperial Guards.

There are also 10,000 Ziyun troops.

Zhao Xuanqi now has three armies in his hands, and he has become a veritable commander of the three armies, and he can be regarded as a ruthless man with an army of 50,000.

Moreover, these 50,000 troops are not the kind of motley army, they are all elite soldiers who have really experienced the battlefield, and their combat effectiveness is unimaginable.

After all this is done, it is the end of December, almost two months have passed.

Zhao Xuanqi only had a few days of free time to sleep.

In his sleep, Zhao Xuanqi dreamed of his wife and children who were far away in Ziyun County.

In her sleep, her wife blamed Zhao Xuanqi for being far away from home, causing the husband and wife to not be able to see each other, and kept complaining with tears streaming down her face.

There are also children in the family, who also keep thinking about their father, and call their father one after another.

When Zhao Xuanqi woke up, his heart was already mixed.

You must know that when he led the army to Chang'an, the youngest son of the family had just been born, and he didn't even have a full moon, and he hadn't even chosen a name yet.

I'm not a good father!

"I didn't expect to dream of my wife and children, did I miss them? Or are they thinking about me? ”

You say, who is thinking about the person who appears in the dream?

Zhao Xuanqi thought about it and finally came up with an answer.

"The body is romantic."

"Your body feels your thoughts, help you meet the person you have been thinking about for a long time"

"It turns out that I miss my wife and children..."

It's just that Ziyun County City and Chang'an City are far apart, and there is basically no chance to meet.

Zhao Xuanqi couldn't see his wife and children at all, and he couldn't see these relatives he missed.

But in the afternoon, there was a knock on his door, and when he opened it, he saw an unexpected person.

Those who want to see can't see it, but those who don't want to see it are coming!

(End of chapter)