At the large campus south of Fanjiazhuang, Li Zhi was testing new weapons with dozens of rocket makers and several generals under his command.
These dozens of firearms craftsmen were collected by Li Zhi from the sanitary craftsmen in Shandong. They were all talented people who were good at making rockets.
Li Zhi wants to develop Ming's rocket this time.
Rockets are a weapon of war invented by the Chinese, and were widely used in the Ming army.
As early as the Anti-Yuan War at the end of the Song Dynasty, there are records of the Song people using rockets to kill Yuan troops. The rockets at that time were basically similar to fireworks, just a tube. One end was covered, and there was a hole at the other end filled with some kind of
Accelerator, send it to the sky, it will explode when the time is up.
However, even this extremely simple firearm killed many Yuan troops on the battlefield. From then on, the Mongols added rockets to their arsenal and spread this weapon invented by the Chinese to the world.
Indians learned rocket technology from the Mongols, and later when the British conquered India, they learned this magical weapon from the Indian army.
In the Ming Dynasty, rockets also continued to develop with the development of war. There were various rockets in the Ming Dynasty, such as the Divine Machine Arrow and the Divine Fire Flying Crow.
The structure of the "Shenji Arrow" is relatively simple. It just uses gunpowder as a propeller to launch arrows. The characteristics of this kind of flying arrows propelled by gunpowder are that they are dense, with hundreds of rounds fired in one shot. Although it lacks accuracy, it has a large coverage area and is enough to
Straf a large area.
Qi Jiguang's Qi family army was widely equipped with this kind of divine machine arrows. Qi Jiguang used thicker arrows and called the improved divine machine arrows "three flying arrows", which became brilliant in the anti-Japanese war.
The "Shenhuo Flying Crow" is more similar to the rocket launchers of later generations. According to the "Military Bei Zhi", this rocket looks like a crow, made of thin bamboo or reeds, and filled with gunpowder. There are two "fire" guns on each side of the crow's body.
, the bottom of the "fire" cartridge is connected to the gunpowder line inside the crow's body. During combat, the thrust of the "fire" is used to shoot the flying crow a hundred feet away. When the flying crow lands, the gunpowder inside is ignited, burning a large area.
These Ming Dynasty rockets can be said to be at the forefront of the world's weapons at that time, two centuries ahead of the West. However, the Ming Dynasty's rockets have a fatal weakness, that is, the accuracy of the hit is not enough. There is no flight stabilization device, which makes most of the Ming army's
The rocket will quickly deviate from its target after being launched.
Therefore, the Ming army's rockets could only use large-scale bombing and win by quantity. However, the cost of launching rockets on a large scale is very terrible. Therefore, except for the extremely elite Beijing camp, few Ming troops are equipped with rockets.
What Li Zhi wants to change is the shooting accuracy of Ming Dynasty rockets. Only by turning rockets into weapons that can shoot directly at targets can these rockets truly have practical significance for mass deployment.
However, before Li Zhi took out his improved rocket, he was questioned by Li Xing.
"Brother, now our thousands of miles of borders between Shandong and Tianjin are all blocked. Raw materials from the outside can't be shipped in, and products from Fanjiazhuang's major factories can't be shipped out. We're losing a lot every day. Big brother is now bringing out new weapons, and
We can’t deal with the enemies attacking our banknotes!”
"Brother, let's think about how to catch the enemies who print counterfeit money so that our blockade can be lifted!"
Li Zhi smiled and asked: "Li Xing, governor of Tianjin, how much will we lose in one day if we block the border now?"
Li Xing did the math and said: "Nowadays, textile factories, soap factories, eyewear workshops, etc. are all unable to sell goods to the outside world. The produced goods are piled up in the warehouse. The daily loss is as high as more than 8,000 taels."
"What is even more worrying is the supply of raw materials for arms. Our saltpeter depends on outside transportation. If the blockade is blocked for four months, our riflemen and artillery will have no gunpowder training."
Li Zhi looked at the other generals under his command and saw that they also had serious expressions. Obviously, everyone was worried about the huge side effects of closing the border.
Blocking the border not only loses factory profits, but also threatens the logistics supply of military activities. This problem is before our eyes, making everyone less interested in new weapons.
Li Zhi nodded and said, "Everyone is worried about losses. I understand this feeling."
"But have you ever thought that in the current war around counterfeit banknotes, even if we detect where and who is printing the counterfeit banknotes, we have no way to retaliate against these printers."
Hearing Li Zhi's words, Li Laosi nodded and said: "My boss is right! Our army has sent troops to attack southern cities many times, and even went to Shanxi at one time. It can be said that it is overwhelming. Now the people of the Ming Dynasty know the distance
Cities within a thousand miles of Tianjin and Shandong cannot stop the Tiger Army."
"Even if we find out who is printing counterfeit money, we can't send a large army to catch these criminals like we did before. Because these criminals have become smart and will run away with the money printing equipment without saying a word. Our
Troops dragging baggage and cannon can only cover fifty miles in a day no matter how fast they move, but the traitor hires a carriage to escape quickly and can easily cover two hundred miles in a day."
"Go to a new place and these traitors can continue printing money."
Li Laosi took a breath and said: "So now in this counterfeit money war, we can only be passively beaten and cannot fight back at all. As soon as we fight back, the enemy will flee. Flee deep into the base camp of the gentry who hate us in the south.
"
Li Xing thought for a while and said: "Li Laosi, we can send sharpshooters to sneak into the southern city to assassinate the culprit."
Li Laosi shook his head and said: "Even if we send sharpshooters, we can only kill a few enemies outside. This kind of assassination can only kill a few targets, and even if we kill an enemy leader, we have to run for our lives."
"After the enemy discovers that we use sharpshooters to assassinate us, they will definitely try to hide indoors."
"When the gunshots are fired, everyone will know about our assassination, and even the position of the sharpshooter will be exposed. The local garrison is searching for our sharpshooter. I am afraid that the more dangerous situation is not the traitor who prints money, but the traitor who prints money."
Our sharpshooter."
"And for a counterfeit banknote trade that can easily earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, the profits are really terrible. Even if we kill one of the leaders, I'm afraid we won't be able to stop others from continuing to print counterfeit banknotes."
"Actually, I guess the money-printing traitors all know the power of our sharpshooters, and they might try to hide indoors during this period."
Everyone was silent after hearing what Li Laosi said. Nine out of ten people who printed counterfeit banknotes this time were gentry from the south, and now these gentry have become more and more shrewd and will run away when they see the situation is not right. With the current situation
, it is indeed difficult to rely on conventional means to go to other provinces to annihilate the traitors who print money, and to frighten other people.
This war against those who print counterfeit banknotes is extremely difficult.
Everyone racked their brains but couldn't think of any solution, and they were all a little discouraged for a while.
Li Zhi nodded and said: "Li Laosi is right, the current conventional methods cannot solve the problem. So I want to invent a weapon that can kill all the enemies gathered together, so that the enemies in the room can't be solved."
There is a way to escape and the problem will be solved once and for all. All enemies who try to print counterfeit money will be frightened."
