Time comes to the end of the 21st year of Chongzhen.
Today it was finally Xiu Mu's turn, and Gao Qiqian entered the mansion in Qingshui Lane in the south of the city with a feeling of exhaustion.
Gao Qiqian's title is Marquis of Loyalty, so the door of his mansion is the same as that of other marquises, and the rooms he enters are exactly the same. There must be no violation of the rules.
Get up and get down from the sedan chair, and enter the Hou Mansion through the gate.
Wherever he passed along the way, the servants and maids came to greet him one after another.
Gao Qiqian put his hands behind his back and kept a straight face, occasionally humming through his nostrils.
In front of Chongzhen, he was just a slave, but in this prince's mansion, he was the master.
All the way into the Dongnuan Pavilion in the upper room, Gao Qiqian asked the housekeeper: "Where is the young master?"
"I went on a social trip," the housekeeper responded respectfully, "I said I won't be back until evening."
"Going on a date?" Gao Qiqian asked casually, "Who are the people with him?"
"Replying to the master, I have already inquired about it." The housekeeper said hurriedly, "One is the son of the Duke of Fujian, and the other seems to be the son of the Xu Gejian family of the military department. They are both students of Jinke."
Just three days ago, the Imperial College had just concluded its fourth phase of enrollment.
In the fourth phase, another full 10,000 students were enrolled, but the actual number of students in this phase was not more than 10,000.
Because starting from the fourth period, some of the noble ministers and meritorious soldiers were escorted to the Imperial Academy one after another.
For example, Gao Qiqian's stepson Gao Quanwen, Wang Chengen's nephew Wang Rendu, and Huaxia's adopted son Wang Chengzhi, the only son of Wang Pohu, and other meritorious children all entered the Imperial College to study.
In addition, Zhou Peigong also passed the examination for this period of Guozi students.
"A descendant of Xu Gejian's family?" Gao Qiqian asked, "Is he a member of Xu Yingwei's family?"
"Exactly." The steward responded respectfully, "It seems that Xu is admonishing the third brother."
"This kid is quite good at socializing." Gao Qiqian said with a look of relief on his face.
In Gao Qiqian's life, apart from the obsession of the eunuch king, there was only Gao Quanwen, his stepson.
Gao Quanwen was not only his stepson, but also his nephew, so Lao Gao was willing to use all his political resources to pave the way for this stepson. The Gao family's family status would depend on this kid to support him in the future.
I took off my shoes and socks and was about to lie down on the couch when the sound of horse hooves suddenly sounded outside.
After a while, the housekeeper hurriedly walked in: "Sir, the Holy One has urgently summoned you to go to the Imperial College."
"Is something serious happening?" Gao Qiqian muttered, but he had already sat up from the couch, put on his clothes under the service of the maid, and hurried out.
When I came outside, I found the wind was blowing.
The northwest wind is blowing hard.
…
In the Liaohe Plain, heavy snow has begun to fall.
In the heavy snow, more than ten cavalrymen were meandering forward.
The leader was none other than Xu Wuniu, who had been promoted to the post of scout cavalry commander.
More than half a year ago, the Gaizhou Guard changed its defense, and Xu Yingwei and most of General Laodong's recruits returned to Nanjing, but Xu Wuniu insisted on staying in Liaodong and continued to serve as the captain of the scout cavalry.
Half a year later, Xu Wuniu has been promoted to the rank of scout commander based on his merits.
It was another ordinary day, once again going deep into the Liaohe Plain to hunt Mongolian herdsmen.
Every day, dozens of scout teams would go out from Gaizhou Wesa to the Liaohe Plain and even further north to hunt and kill lone Mongolian herdsmen, and sometimes rob cattle and sheep. Anyway, they were all kinds of harassment.
Of course, sometimes they would be surrounded by Mongolian cavalry and hunted.
But in general, the Mongols were at a comprehensive disadvantage and suffered greater losses.
"Stop!" Xu Wuniu raised his right hand, and the dozens of riders following behind him immediately stopped.
Xu Wuniu turned his head and listened for a moment in the wind and snow, then roared loudly: "Spread out!"
Following Xu Wuniu's roar, a dozen scout cavalrymen immediately dispersed, forming a loose fan-shaped formation.
After a while, hundreds of Mongolian cavalry appeared in the wind and snow in front of them, waving their scimitars and roaring towards them.
Seeing this scene, Xu Wuniu was not afraid of being rejoiced, it was a good time.
"I have everything, prepare to fight!" Xu Wuniu took out the rifle hidden in the lapel of his cotton coat.
Dozens of cavalry scouts also took out their rifles one after another. Because the climate in Liaodong was too cold, they were worried that the triggers would be frozen, so they kept them covered by their clothes during the march.
In the blink of an eye, the two sides were less than two hundred steps apart.
Xu Wuniu and dozens of scout cavalrymen turned their horses and trotted in the direction from which they came.
The Ming army's scout cavalry was trotting, but the Mongolian cavalry was galloping, so the distance between the two sides was quickly shortened, and in a moment they were less than a hundred steps away.
Xu Wuniu turned around and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
There was a gunshot, and a Mongolian cavalryman fell off his horse a hundred paces away.
After a long period of hunting, Xu Wuniu's mounted shooting has reached a very high level. Even on a galloping horse, he can basically hit a human target a hundred steps away.
Gunshots rang out continuously, and other scout cavalry also opened fire.
However, the other scout cavalry's marksmanship was not as good as Xu Wuniu's, and only half of their hits were successful.
After firing a shot, Xu Wuniu quickly took out a paper-cased bullet from the bullet bag, inserted it from the muzzle of the gun, and then pressed the paper-cased bullet to the bottom of the gun chamber with a straight strip, and pressed it slightly.
Insert the strip back and take out a primer from the primer box.
This is the latest achievement developed by Gewuke specifically for cavalry.
It was quite difficult for the cavalry to load ammunition on the back of a galloping horse.
In particular, it is extremely troublesome to pour the primer into the primer chamber. If you accidentally pour too much, the remaining gunpowder of the paper shell bullet will be insufficient, which will lead to insufficient killing. But if you pour too little, it will cause a misfire.
Sometimes the primer will be blown away by the wind, which can also cause a misfire.
So most of the time, the cavalry will use two paper shells.
One of the paper-cased bullets serves as a primer. It is better to waste it than to ensure that the primer is sufficient.
In view of this characteristic of cavalry combat, Gewuke specially developed a igniting powder pack.
It is to wrap an appropriate amount of gunpowder with extremely thin and oil-soaked cotton cloth to make small bags.
When it is time to use it, the cavalry only needs to grab a primer from the primer box and pack it into the primer room.
In this way, the time for loading the primer is greatly shortened, and there is no need to worry about misfiring due to insufficient primer. This greatly improves the efficiency of reloading and the misfire rate is also sharply reduced.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! After installing the primer, the primer cap connected to the anvil immediately bounces back, firmly covering the primer chamber.
Xu Wuniu pulled the trigger harder. At this point, the reloading was completed. It took less than ten seconds in total, which was even faster than when the infantry was changing. You must know that this was a flying cavalry.
horseback.
He raised his gun and looked back. The Mongolian cavalry was still a hundred paces away, and the Mongolian horses were still a little slower.
The next moment, continuous gunfire sounded again on the snowy field, and several more Mongolian cavalry fell off their horses.
He reloaded and fired again, and then several more Mongolian cavalry fell off their horses. This was not a fair battle, and the Mongolian cavalry didn't even have a chance to fire arrows.
Against such heavy wind and snow, the arrows fired by the cavalry bow could only reach fifty paces.
The weapons were not as good as those of the Ming army, and even the horses were not as good as the Ming army. The Mongolian cavalry was helpless.
After chasing for about half an hour, the Mongolian cavalry had already suffered casualties of forty or fifty.
The remaining Mongolian cavalry had no choice but to give up, because if they continued to chase like this, all the hundreds of cavalry would die. Their small tribe really could not afford such heavy casualties.
With a whistle, the Mongolian cavalry immediately retreated.
"Want to escape? It's not that easy." Xu Wuniu laughed ferociously.
However, just when Xu Wuniu was about to give the order to pursue him, a horse neighed from behind.
Looking back quickly, I saw a fast horse rushing over from the wind and snow. It was the command horse of the Ming army.
"Chief Xu!" The Ming army messenger shouted loudly from a distance, "If the admonition is given, all the scout teams will withdraw to Gaizhou Guards immediately. If the admonition is given, all the scout teams will be withdrawn to Gaizhou immediately."
guard……"
Xu Wuniu's eyes flashed and he said sternly: "I have them all, come back!"
Dozens of mounted scouts turned their horses' heads one after another.
…
At the foot of Tianmu Mountain, beside Wanma Crossing.
Xu Yingwei was riding his horse and whipping his young son in his arms.
"Dad, are those stones really transformed by Pegasus?"
"Of course it's true. Every stone is a Pegasus."
"But, why don't the gods come back and drive them away?"
"Because if Pegasus turns to stone, he will never be able to turn back to Pegasus. Just like if you don't study hard, you will become an idle playboy in the future, and you will never become a scholar like your third uncle."
"Then I have to study hard and read well. When I grow up, I want to be admitted to the Imperial College."
"Yes, the only way for the children of our grandfather's Xu family is to study."
Arriving at the entrance of the village, Xu Yingwei first put his son down from the horse, then turned over and dismounted, then held the horse with one hand and his son's little hand with the other as he headed home.
During this period, I passed by the entrance of Cuntou Private School.
Seeing Xu Yingwei and his son being so close, the private school teacher couldn't help but shake his head.
Xu Yingwei didn't care about this. If it were four years ago, Xu Yingwei would never have been so close to his son, because Confucianism advocates that a gentleman embraces grandchildren but not sons.
But now, Xu Yingwei no longer agrees that a gentleman embraces grandchildren rather than sons.
As time went on, the debate between conservatives and reformers became more widespread and more intense.
Under the fierce attack of the reformists, the embankment of feudal ethics is gradually loosening, and the first to bear the brunt are etiquette and laws that are contrary to human ethics, such as "a gentleman embraces grandchildren but not children."
Xu Yingwei scorned such etiquette.
What's wrong with a close relationship between father and son? Aren't the relationships between the Holy Emperor and the Crown Prince, Prince Ding, and Prince Yong also very close?
Xu Shiyi was sitting at the door smoking a cigarette. When he saw his son leading his eldest grandson home, he couldn't help but frown slightly, but in the end he didn't say anything. The main reason was that his son had grown up and he didn't dare to teach him the same lesson as before.
But Xu Shiyi was full of worries in his heart, feeling that the Ming Dynasty was in danger.
In Xu Shiyi's view, the rules of king, king, minister, father, son and son have all been set.
Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty only respected Confucianism, haven't we lived like this for two thousand years? What's wrong with this?
Why did it suddenly stop working? When it comes to reforming feudal ethics, the reformists clearly want to rebel, not only against the Ming Dynasty, but also against the Confucian ancestral temple!
