With domestic demand, these 6 million can further promote the prosperity of Ming's industry and commerce, add more jobs, and expand Ming's industrial population.
In view of this, Chongzhen really was not stingy at all in creating wealth among the people.
In the next step, Chongzhen also planned to establish a grain regulation warehouse in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Then, through this withered warehouse, the benchmark price of grain purchase will be significantly increased.
The purpose of raising the benchmark price for grain procurement is to make farmers in Ming Dynasty rich and well-off. On the one hand, it will continue to stimulate domestic demand, and on the other hand, it will guide more farmers to increase their efforts in growing grain.
There will be no stability without farmers, and there will be no wealth without businessmen. The Ming Dynasty cannot have only businessmen and no farmers.
Industrial products can improve the living standards of the people of the Ming Dynasty, but they still have to rely on food to fill their stomachs.
This underlying logic is not very deep, but due to the limitations of the times, Lu Jiude and Qian Xi could not understand it.
Qian Xi wanted to persuade Chongzhen that he didn't need to give out so much at once, but when the words came to his lips, he swallowed them back and finally said something about the order.
Qian Xi couldn't understand the underlying logic, but he understood Chongzhen.
As long as it is decided by Chongzhen, it cannot be changed. As a minister, you just have to implement it.
Chongzhen said to Zheng Zhilong again: "Zheng Qing, the navy officers and soldiers of the 2nd Army Division must be waiting for the news. You should convey the good news to them quickly."
"I accept the order." Zheng Zhilong immediately obeyed.
After a while, the news spread throughout the entire base.
The next moment, the navy officers and officers of the 2nd Division who were anxiously waiting for the news cheered like a tsunami: Long live the righteous Lord!
Long live the Ming Dynasty!
The sun, moon, mountains and rivers are always there!
Amid the cheers of the soldiers, Chongzhen quietly arrived at Gewu Ke.
Unfortunately, Fang Yizhi and Song Yingxing were out and could not see their results.
Now Chongzhen came to the Firearms Department again, wanting to see how far the development of rifled guns had progressed?
This time it came at the right time. Zhang Jimeng had just assembled the first 2.5-inch rifled gun and was preparing to take the rifled gun to the campus for a trial test.
Zhang Jimeng said: "Your Majesty, you came at the right time."
Chongzhen smiled and said: "As the saying goes, coming early is worse than coming by time, so let's go together."
Immediately, the two of them got on a carriage from the Firearms Department, dragged the assembled 2.5-inch rifled mountain cannon, and rushed to the university grounds in the south of the city under the escort of a regiment of guards.
…
At the same time, Li Zicheng was also testing artillery on Bailuyuan.
After witnessing the decisive battle of the Ming and Qing Dynasties at Baliqiao last June, Li Zicheng finally realized that firearms had completely replaced bows, arrows and spears and became the absolute masters on the battlefield.
So after returning to Xi'an, Li Zicheng carried out drastic military reforms.
In addition to strengthening the passes such as Zijingguan, Daomaguan, Guguan and Tongguan, there is also a large-scale change of equipment, which greatly improves the equipment ratio of flintlocks and cannons.
But Dashun's army didn't have that many firearms.
Li Zicheng also tried his best to do this.
The first thing that comes to mind is to purchase from outside.
External purchases can be divided into two directions. One is to purchase the eliminated bird guns and Rumi guns from the Ming Dynasty, and the other is to purchase Turkish guns from the Ottomans through the Oirat Mongolia.
Bird guns, Rumi guns and Turkish guns are all matchlock guns, which are far less sharp than flintlock guns.
But Li Zicheng had no other choice but to make do with it. It was better to have a gun than not to have one.
Anyway, he planned to replace all the cold weapons of Dashun Army with firearms in the shortest possible time.
In addition to outsourcing, others are self-made, but the performance of self-made firearms is also disappointing.
"No, this range is not enough. It is far inferior to the Ming army." Looking at the long crater in front of him, Li Zicheng looked disappointed and said to Song Xiance, who was responsible for supervising the manufacture of firearms. "The Ming army's artillery of this caliber can shoot at least a thousand steps."
.”
Song Xiance said with a grimace: "Then we need to increase the amount of explosives. But if we continue to increase the amount of explosives, it will easily explode the chamber. One door has already been exploded before."
After speaking, Song Xiance pointed not far away.
Li Zicheng and the accompanying civilian and military officers turned around and saw an exploding cannon.
Gao Zongmin said disdainfully: "It's not easy to avoid exploding the barrel. Why don't we just continue to thicken the barrel? Since five inches is not enough, then increase it to seven inches or even one foot."
"That's easy to say." Song Xiance said unhappily, "If the thickness of the barrel is increased to seven inches or even one foot, how much more iron will be needed for each shot? Our iron is already not enough, and now even the private
All the iron pots have been plundered, where can we find insufficient iron? Will it fall from the sky with just a touch of lip service?"
Liu Zongmin's face turned pale when he was attacked, but he had no way to refute.
"That's not the most important thing." Gu Junen, who was in charge of co-production, sighed and added, "The most important thing is that after the thickness of the barrel increases from five inches to seven inches or even one foot, the weight will also increase significantly."
"The weight of the 4-inch gun will exceed 8,000 kilograms by then."
"Even the 2.5-inch gun weighs more than 5,000 kilograms."
After a pause, Gu Junen continued: "Such a heavy cannon requires dozens of mules and horses to drag it. Ordinary roads are simply impassable. It is even more troublesome on rainy days, as it will fall directly into the mud."
"I'm not afraid of this. It's too heavy to move, so I just put it on the pass."
Nowadays, Li Zicheng's ideas have quietly changed. He no longer hopes to destroy the Ming Dynasty and unify China, but only hopes to defend the northwest of Shanxi and Shaanxi and maintain the Dashun Kingdom.
After a pause, Li Zicheng added: "Just follow what Ruhou said, increase the thickness of the cannon barrel. In short, the range of our cannon must reach or even exceed that of Nanming's cannon."
Song Xiance asked: "What should I do with the iron materials?"
Li Zicheng said: "As for iron, recruit more craftsmen and increase the mining and smelting of iron ore."
Gu Jun'en said: "But there are no more craftsmen in Guanzhong, and even miners are difficult to find."
During the Wanli Period, the number of Ding in Shaanxi Province was more than 4.5 million, and the number of Ding in Shanxi Province was more than 5 million. This shows that the actual population of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces was at least 20 million.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! However, years of war and famine have caused the population of Shanxi and Shaanxi to drop sharply.
The two provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi are not as miserable as Henan. One out of ten is not enough, but seven out of ten is a lot more. Therefore, the total population of Shanxi and Shaanxi is now only 6 million at most.
A population of 6 million, excluding the old, young, women and children, would suffice 2 million young adults.
After excluding the more than 500,000 Dashun troops, a total of 1.5 million young and strong laborers are left.
As for the 1.5 million young and strong labor force, they had to repair and strengthen the passes, farm and herd cattle, mine and smelt iron, and work as domestic slaves for the newly born Dashun nobles. It was indeed a bit overwhelming.
But Li Zicheng also had the courage to directly attack the powerful.
"Kings and princes and uncles are only allowed to keep old and weak slaves in their mansions."
"All young and strong domestic slaves are sent to Nanshan to mine and smelt iron. Violators will be severely punished."
Although Liu Zongmin and other powerful officials were dissatisfied, they did not dare to disobey the order.
…
Nanjing University Campus.
The new 2.5-inch rifled gun built by the Firearms Department has been fixed.
"Fire!" Following Zhang Jimeng's command, the gunner decisively inserted the ignition rod into the fire door of the gun wedge.
The fuse in the gun wedge was ignited instantly, and then detonated the 2-pound gunpowder package in the gun barrel. The instant deflagration of the 2-pound smokeless gunpowder produced huge energy, pushing the blooming warhead integrated with the cork out of the gun chamber.
, accelerated by the gun barrel with a length of 8 feet, forming a muzzle velocity of more than 300 meters per second.
The moment the warhead flew away from the muzzle, there was a loud "pop" sound.
Chongzhen and Zhang Jimeng raised their telescopes at the same time and aimed at the shooting range about two thousand steps ahead.
However, there was still no smoke blooming in the field of view of the telescope. Ten seconds had passed and there was still no smoke. Zhang Jimeng couldn't help but be a little confused. Could it be that it was a dud? Ordinarily it shouldn't be.
Chongzhen reacted suddenly and decisively aimed his vision further away.
At the same time, adjust the telescope's focal length to three thousand steps away.
Sure enough, after nearly twenty seconds, a small puff of smoke suddenly rose in the field of vision.
Due to the long distance, the smoke and dust that rose up was only a small cloud, but Chongzhen knew very well that this cloud of smoke and dust was actually not small at all, with a diameter of at least a dozen steps. A dense formation could kill and injure hundreds of people!
Because the sound of the shell exploding could not be heard immediately, Zhang Jijie thought it was really a dumb bomb.
At that moment, Zhang Jimeng said with some guilt: "Your Majesty, I will do one more shot right now. This one will work."
However, Chongzhen said with a smile: "Zhang Qing, the shot just now was not a dud, but the range was beyond your imagination, so you didn't see it explode."
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As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of an explosion finally came back.
Zhang Jimeng quickly raised his telescope and looked forward, and saw the smoke and dust that had not yet dispersed.
"Your Majesty? This!" Zhang Jieri's face turned red due to excitement, and he said in disbelief, "Based on this distance, I'm afraid it's more than three thousand steps?"
"Just a little more." Chongzhen smiled and nodded.
Now the problem of the cannon's range has been completely solved.
Then the next step is to solve the problem of rate of fire.
Naval naval guns have increased their rate of fire to 2 rounds per minute through guide rails and multi-bow bed crossbow recoil devices. In the future, after solving the problems of primers and fixed loading of metal bullet cases, it will be possible to eliminate the need to clean the gun bore and wet the gun bore to extinguish sparks.
By wiping it clean and other steps, the rate of fire can be further increased, and it is possible to reach 20 rounds per minute.
However, the field artillery and mountain artillery used by the Army do not have a re-entry device and require a reset operation after firing a shot. Therefore, the rate of fire is only one round per minute, and it requires the best artillery.
So the next step is to develop an anti-recoil recoil device.
At that moment, Chongzhen drew a sketch and said to Zhang Jimeng: "Zhang Qing, the next step is the recovery device."
Zhang Jimeng has been engaged in firearms research and development for more than five years now and has a considerable degree of firearms thinking. As soon as he saw this recoil device, he knew its usefulness.
"Your Majesty, this re-entry device is truly exquisite."
"With this device, artillerymen no longer have to readjust the elements after firing a shot."
"So, hurry up and build this device." Chongzhen said with a smile, "Then hand over the rifled gun with the recoil device to the arsenal and hurry up for production."
