Chapter 108: Crushing the Army and a Prince (Part 2)
But among the hundreds of millions of people in the world, how many ordinary people can actually live a slightly stable and ordinary life?
In Shaanxi, Sichuan, Pianyuan, Anlu, Fujian and Guangdong... and even in Jiangnan, ordinary people who account for the vast majority of household registrations in the world still want to have a day of leisure but cannot.
Li Laiheng's happy mood could not help but be severely hit by this thought.
What's more, it's already the second half of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign. Heaven is about to fall, who can save it?
Li Laiheng was confident that he had done a lot of work for the Chuang army, and the current strength of the Chuang army was much stronger than that of the same period in history. But even so, could Li Zicheng be able to withstand the Qing army's three axes?
If Li Zicheng cannot stop him, who will save Tian Qing?
alone?
But is Li Laiheng really ready to support the world on his own?
In fact, most people can gradually realize that Li Laiheng is not that kind of talented and magnificent hero.
On the contrary, he does not have Li Zicheng's broad mind, but instead often cares about trivial matters. Although his mind cannot be said to be particularly narrow, it is definitely not very generous. He also does not have Li Guo's sincerity and integrity, and there is nothing like Li Guo in him.
He has a spirit of strict self-discipline and lenient treatment of others, let alone Li Guo's selfless spirit of sacrifice.
Even Li Laiheng is not as brave and good at fighting as Li Shuangxi!
What kind of person is Li Laiheng?
He often neglects the overall situation because of small interests, and even blinds his eyesight, putting his own life and the lives of the entire army on such insignificant things; he often loses no opportunity to make the final decision when faced with critical decisions.
Compromise at the critical moment, or give in on fundamental issues related to the overall situation of the army.
To describe what kind of person Li Laiheng is, the most accurate sentence seems to be: "He is fierce and timid, he is always scheming, he cherishes his life when doing big things, and he forgets his life when he sees small gains."
This is by no means the personality that a great hero or a great leader should have.
Rather, it is a kind of personality charm that is completely impossible to show off.
But even so, there are many things in this world that only Li Laiheng can accomplish, and there are also many people and things in this world that can only be saved by Li Laiheng.
Even ordinary people like Li Laiheng, whose personality is far from noble, still have the courage to stand up when the craze strikes.
At that critical moment, as long as he can stand up and carry the world, the people, and the expectations of a nation, he can become a hero of this era.
"How long do I have left? How long do I have?"
Li Laiheng instinctively muttered to himself. Chen Xin couldn't help but feel strange when he heard this and asked: "It's getting late, isn't the commander preparing for the army's eastward march?"
"Yes... as the army marches eastward, I should pursue Yuan Shizhong and meet Xuzhou Suppressor General Shi Kefa for a while. This is my heavy responsibility."
Li Laiheng was silent for a few seconds, with a very complicated expression on his face, as if he was thinking about something. Then, Li Laiheng suddenly asked Zhang Pili to go and find Bai Jiuhe, the military commander, and Zhang Guang, who is now the director of the Ordnance Academy.
Call.
In the past, Lord He was responsible for the ordnance production of the Chuang Army. However, with the rapid expansion of the territory of the Chuang Army in Huguang, Lord He had to deal with more and more affairs. Although he had the help of a capable deputy, deputy envoy Zhang Yuheng, he also
Some are too much to handle.
The position of director of the Ordnance Academy, which was originally held concurrently by Bai Jiuhe, was transferred to Zhang Guang. The rapid expansion of the Chuang Army in Huguang also attracted many businessmen from the Jianghan area. Zhang Guang is a Fujian businessman and is also a rare businessman.
As a Catholic, Zhang Guang was in charge of the work of imitating the Red Yi Cannon for the Chuang Army.
He also has outstanding abilities, especially good at mathematics, and has a good relationship with some Western missionaries in Wuchang. After the Chuang Army took over Wuchang from Zhang Xianzhong, Zhang Guang invited the Western missionaries living in Wuchang to the Military Academy
, hanging out with them to study firearms development.
Among these, what Li Laiheng paid the most attention to was the imitation of self-made fire guns.
Self-fired muskets, also known as flintlock guns. The first time the Chuang Army captured a flintlock gun was during the Shenzhuang Military Rebellion. At that time, some gentry in Macheng held self-fired muskets bought at high prices from Guangdong.
Li Laiheng naturally knew the value and importance of flintlock guns, so after the intruders seized the self-made fire guns in Macheng, Li Laiheng immediately asked He Ye to start the work of imitating them.
It's just that the imitation of flintlock guns is not as simple as Li Laiheng thought. The mechanical structure of the flintlock gun is actually quite simple. The most difficult problem is to mass-produce the flintlock gun. First, the problem of mass-produced springs must be solved.
Bai Jiuhe and Zhang Guang have been studying spring sheets for a long time. This time Zhang Guang personally handed over a spring produced by the Institute of Ordnance to Li Laiheng for inspection.
Li Laiheng held the spring leaf, which was already quite finely crafted, in his hand, played with it several times, and asked, "Have you tried putting this spring on a self-generating fire gun?"
Baijiuhe twirled a piece of his beard and said with a smile: "The self-generating fire gun fired by this spring leaf, whether in terms of shooting speed or firing rate, is far superior to our bird gun. If we can promote the self-generating fire gun
If it is opened and spread to the entire army, the strength of the Chuang Army will grow by leaps and bounds."
"So, is the biggest problem still the inability to solve the problem of mass production?"
"Yes, the craftsmen at the Ordnance Academy have been able to create quite fine spring blades. But if we want to use the spring blades to make self-generating fire guns as Jie Shuai said, we will still have to spend a lot of money on such a large number of springs.
Do it for a long time.”
When Li Laiheng heard this, he sighed and put the spring piece back on the table. He knew that popularizing flintlock guns still seemed not something that could be done in a short time.
"We have a public-private partnership with the jute gentry. We have recently taken over Xiangyang, Hankou, and Wuchang, and opened many new workshops. We broke into the army and worked out the Yangwu blue formula ourselves. I gave the Huguang gentry a share in the production of this dye.
How big of a deal is it to get rich and change the military uniforms for one summer and winter? But I don’t see them setting up workshops, doing business, or coming up with anything new.”
Li Laiheng was a little depressed. Although he used the farm system to deprive the Huguang gentry of more than two-thirds of their land income, as long as these gentry were obedient and stopped playing tricks on the land issue, they would invest all the remaining land income into
In the Chuangjun public-private partnership industry, the current profits are definitely not small.
However, these gentry really had no future at all. Although capitalism was budding, Li Laiheng gave them enough face and conditions. He opened many large-scale new workshops in Xiangyang and Hankou.
It's a pity that we haven't seen any new production techniques and technologies introduced and developed by these gentry.
After all, they are just a bunch of country bumpkins, and we don’t know how long it will take for these farmers to naturally transform into industrialists.
"Wang Chen, during the time I went to Yunyang, did Ken Deji send the fruits, vines, and seeds that I had promised to Xiangyang?"
"Oh, shopkeeper Xiao specifically told me about this. He said that these newly delivered fruits and seeds are very precious, and he asked me to keep them carefully. I heard from him that there are corns, sweet potatoes, oh, and potatoes, potatoes.
This thing is indeed precious and is a specialty of Yanjing. Its name is no less than the pine nuts from Liaodong and the yellow flowers from Jibei."
"Ha, are potatoes so valuable?"
Li Laiheng burst into laughter. He had no idea that potatoes had been introduced to China as early as the Wanli period and had become a precious delicacy valued by the upper class.
Xu Wei has a five-rhythm poem "Potato" that says: "Hazelnuts are not soft enough, wild wild rice roots are destined to be female. Flowers fall from Wu Sha, and owl squat on leaves of Shu. There is still no one to prepare tea, and the chopsticks seem to be ashamed. The charming frown is not
If you don't appreciate it, you will be haggard and tired."
Xu Wei traveled north and south throughout his life and gained extensive knowledge. However, he praised potatoes and regarded them as high-quality delicacies. This also shows that the planting quantity of this important high-yielding crop is very small, and its significance to people's livelihood is still very small.
Potato rhizomes were purchased from Beijing by Ken Deji, a merchant from Jiujiang. Corn and sweet potatoes were purchased directly from Yueyang from Guangdong merchants.
These high-yield crops have not been promoted on a large scale at this time, and the huge energy hidden in them has not attracted anyone's attention.
Li Laiheng regarded these rhizome seeds as his last resort in case of unforeseen circumstances in the future.
"Potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn are all suitable for planting in mountainous areas. Even in barbaric and miasmatic towns like Yunnan and Guizhou, or in cliffs and mountains like Kuidong, they can all be planted..."
Chen Xin said strangely: "The terrain of Huguang is flat and the water network is dense. Isn't the benefit of growing rice and wheat far better than these things?"
Li Laiheng did not answer Chen Xin's question, but looked in the direction of Kuidong Mountain, his eyes seeming to have traveled through many years. He was trembling in his heart for the upcoming moment of heavenly collapse, and finally turned around and said to everyone:
"I will be traveling eastward, and I will leave Huguang to you!"
(The third volume of Jianghan Hunting is finished, the fourth volume of Liaohai Youyan, the moment of decisive battle with the Manchus has finally arrived.)