Since Descartes converted to the Ming Dynasty, he did come up with some gadgets for the Ming Dynasty in just a few months.
It can be said that the huge investment in introducing exotic catfish to boost scientific research competition has immediate results.
Other things are still slow to take effect, and the one that can be directly put into practical application is Descartes's visit to the Purple Mountain Observatory. After several months of scientific research at the meteorological observatory, he helped Zhu Shuren come up with another telescope improvement plan, which improved all aspects.
Some of these properties also helped Daming make some adjustments in miniaturizing and improving the telescope.
By chance, perhaps he learned that the Ming Dynasty might need to start another war with the nomadic barbarians in the north at any time to regain some of its lost homeland, and the military pressure was relatively high. In addition, Descartes accidentally discovered that the Ming Dynasty actually had advanced rifle precision that was not found in Europe.
Sniper rifle.
Then Descartes used his ingenuity and made some adjustments to his latest improved miniaturized telescope, creating the world's first rifle scope.
Descartes also conducted some discussions on ballistics research with his colleagues in the Ming Dynasty.
In this era, Western artillery ballistics was still very primitive. As for musketeers, there was no ballistics at all, nor was there any firearm calibration before aiming in actual combat.
However, the Ming Dynasty already had an early foundation of artillery ballistics, which greatly shocked Descartes.
After the shock, Descartes used his mathematical genius to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses with Ming Dynasty scholars and craftsmen, and brainstormed. He came up with the idea of drawing a range-finding line on the sight to calculate how much the muzzle angle needed to be raised according to different shooting distances.
In addition, inspired by each other, the two sides also worked out a set of operating specifications on how to pre-calibrate rifled rifles before going to the battlefield, and conducted repeated tests.
These small improvements are of little help to the vast majority of Ming riflemen who still use "Wuchang-made" muskets. The muskets are not yet considered a precision strike force.
However, the improvement in the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty's artillery and rifled snipers was immediate. When the Ming Dynasty and the Puppet Qing went to war again, their chances of winning would undoubtedly increase.
…
Moreover, Descartes and Jansen-Tasman did not all come to the Ming Dynasty alone. When Descartes was in the Netherlands, he was considered a top scholar, and he had many disciples and apprentices. Jansen-Tasman had been a geographical explorer for many years, and he also had some capable
Key subordinates.
This time, they all brought a team with them, and they all had more or less supporting skills. They exchanged knowledge with Ming craftsmen and scholars. After exchanges and exchanges, they could do more things.
Within just a few months, the Daming Academy of Sciences, under the leadership of Song Yingxing, implemented this sorting work.
After sorting it out, I found that the Dutch team can help Daming improve quickly and make up for its shortcomings in at least the following aspects.
The first is shipbuilding technology.
This is not to say that the enlarged version of the Fu Chuan and the sand boat originally used by the Ming Dynasty were not easy to use. The Ming Dynasty was still very good in every subdivided basic aspect of shipbuilding, such as watertight compartments.
Fu Chuan and Sha Chuan are indeed the most suitable ship types for China's offshore navigation.
But I have to admit that many Western ship types do have advantages in ocean exploration and trade. The Dutch have been sea coachmen for more than half a century, and they still suppressed the original overlord Spain. They have their own
its accumulation.
This time, the establishment system attracted a group of Dutch technology, shipbuilding, and exploration talents, which at least enriched the Ming Dynasty's shipbuilding capabilities and unlocked many new ship types.
From then on, the Ming Dynasty could slowly explore how to build "three-layer gun-deck Galenic warships" and "Manila-type ocean-going Galenic merchant ships".
Moreover, Zhu Shuren was also very concerned about shipbuilding and navigation. During this period, he went to inspect many times and gave advice to the teams of Descartes and Jansen-Tasman.
Although he doesn't know how to build a ship specifically, he does know the general trend of historical development. Before time travel, he also played countless generations of games similar to "The Age of Discovery". Therefore, after the elimination of the Galenic sailing ship, history should be based on
Of course, Zhu Shuren is well aware of the question "Which type of ship has more advantages?"
So at an appropriate time, he put forward the following views:
Compared with the previous Karak/Caravel ships, one of the biggest advantages of the Galen ship is that it has eliminated the towering forecastle, lowered the center of gravity and reduced resistance, improved seaworthiness, and increased displacement utilization and effectiveness.
Cargo Capacity - However, this improvement is still not radical enough.
Because the Galen ship still retains a tall stern tower in order to cope with a certain degree of close combat, prevent shipboard jumping, and shootout battles within the musket range. This thing is still good for center of gravity, seaworthiness, and tonnage utilization.
There are disadvantages.
Previously, this design had to be retained because the cannon's range was not far enough. During battles, the warships of both sides often came within a hundred steps of each other and fired at each other, or even joined forces.
There is a tall poop, which at least makes it as difficult for the opponent to attack the city from above when firing muskets. It is even more difficult to rush up to the poop from the deck when attacking from the side.
However, artillery technology has improved every few years, and the metallurgy and cannon-casting technology of the Ming Dynasty have made Descartes tremble with fear after watching the live-fire experiments.
With this new cannon, the possibility of close-range hand-to-hand combat or even gunfire in the future has been infinitely close to zero, so there is no need for the cumbersome poop tower! You can try to make it a flat deck!
As a result, the Dutch combined the original ready-made drawings with the new needs suggested by Zhu Shuren, and they came up with the 18th century sailing battleship of later generations - the design level is roughly equivalent to the European Seven Years War (1763) to Napoleon
The Level Between the Wars (1812).
After all, the cannons made by Zhu Shuren have reached the technological level of the late 18th century, so there is no reason why the ships he built cannot match them!
With the advent of sailing battleships, ocean-going light ships can also be closer to the sailing frigates of the 18th century. In the end, only clippers used for ocean exploration and load-carrying trade will be a little more troublesome.
But Zhu Shuren estimated that given Descartes and Tasman's team five to ten years, they could figure it out. Anyway, there is no need to rush into this. It is just a casual move for the long-term stability of the Ming Dynasty. At present, there is no need for an ocean-going navy to fight the Tatars.
Not even the Fuchuan navy is needed, only the Shen family's own Shachuan navy is needed to dominate the Yellow Sea.
The shipbuilding technology of the Dutch was directly digested and absorbed by the Zhu Shuren team, and then integrated and upgraded.
…
In addition to shipbuilding, there are only one or two other technologies brought by the Dutch that the Ming Dynasty can learn from immediately.
One is the Western-style transportation road infrastructure construction method, and the other is the construction technology of the upgraded version of the bastion, the Star Fortress.
After all, Europeans are somewhat unique in the field of infrastructure. Although the ancient Chinese had Qin Zhidao in road construction, the road and bridge projects in subsequent dynasties were still relatively natural development. Although in the West, after the fall of the Roman Empire, Roman roads and bridges
Technology also lagged behind, but by the end of the Age of Discovery, it gradually surpassed the Ming Dynasty, which allowed natural development.
Therefore, it is also beneficial to learn some engineering techniques for building bridges and roads from Europeans, and to learn from each other by combining Chinese and Western styles. As for how to build a house, there is no need to learn too much. After all, the differences between Chinese and Western architectural ideas are too big, and they can only be slightly different.
Partial reference.
As for military fortress-like buildings, the Netherlands is, after all, the birthplace of the bastion fortress, and there is still some research into the new offensive and defensive tactics after the popularization of heavy artillery.
In addition, the Europeans had just finished the Thirty Years' War. During the Thirty Years' War, countless bastions were built on the land of Germany, France, Italy, and Austria, and countless high-density sieges were fought. Therefore, both the offensive and defensive sides were very concerned about artillery attacks.
The intensity of the confrontation between the city and the artillery defenders is constantly increasing.
In contrast, the Ming Dynasty could only rely on the foresight of Zhu Shuren alone, although some cities and fortresses were also built in the form of fortresses.
However, because the enemy's ability to attack fortresses was too weak, Li Zicheng could not defeat any of the puppet Qing dynasties. Since the fifteenth year of Chongzhen's reign, in the past eight years, although many provincial-level fortified cities in the Ming Dynasty have been breached,
None of them were directly guarded by Zhu Shuren's troops. Those that were lost were the fault of the old Ming army commanded by others, because they were too incapable of fighting.
All the core cities defended by Zhu Shuren's direct lineage Huguang Army and the later reorganized Xinming Army have still had zero records of being breached so far.
The enemy is too unbeatable, and the Ming army cannot gradually upgrade and summarize the experience of defending the city in the confrontation. In this case, it is better to directly use the design ideas and optimize the ideas that the Europeans have gained through countless blood in the Thirty Years War and learn from them.
, direct hypothetical deduction, digestion and absorption.
As an aside, perhaps Zhu Shuren's move to poach the French scientist Descartes and bring a bunch of his students and disciples had a profound impact on the subsequent attraction of French and Dutch scientific and military engineering talents.
Because the legend of Descartes doing well in the Ming Dynasty will eventually have the demonstration effect of "the bones of a thousand gold merchants" and "the golden platform built by King Yan Zhao", allowing a group of people to do well in France and the Netherlands but have real talents and learning.
People who have wonderful ideas are ready to take action.
In the next ten years, Zhu Shuren asked the ocean-going merchants trained by Janssen Tasman to go on the ocean routes to France and the Netherlands several times, basically every three years and three times in ten years. Each time, he helped Zhu Shuren get dozens of dollars back from Europe.
Even hundreds of useful talent teams.
In the third year after Descartes came to China, it was also the second time that the Janssen-Tasman fleet brought talents to China. Among the talents brought back, Zhu Shuren discovered a very talented man who was only in his early twenties.
The French siege artillery technical officer was named Vauban - there is no doubt that he was the French Marshal Vauban who later invented the Vauban siege method in history.
Historically, after the Thirty Years' War, Vauban continued to help Prince Condé conquer cities and territories during the stone-throwing civil war in France that began in 1648 after the Thirty Years' War, and was promoted successively. But now, because he heard that coming to the Ming Dynasty would bring him huge rewards, he chose to
Traveled across vast oceans to see the light.
Historically, Vauban built 33 new star forts in his lifetime, which no one else could capture. And he himself captured 53 old enemy forts in his lifetime, making him the number one offensive/defensive master in Europe in the fort era.
The application of city heavy artillery is definitely the first in the world.
Such a master of military engineering was poached because of Zhu Shuren's thirst for talents. It is estimated that during the seventy-year reign of the "Sun King" Louis XIV, the rise of the French will also be slowed to a certain extent.
The discount is considered a butterfly effect.
…
Sights and other ballistics and sighting technologies have advanced rapidly, and shipbuilding, city building, and road construction technologies have also made considerable progress. The Ming Dynasty's military potential has indeed achieved considerable reinforcements in the first three quarters of the Longwu Five Years.
Even those rotten scholars who did not support Zhu Shuren's establishment of the Academy of Sciences at the beginning, and did not support him building so many research institutes, zoological and botanical gardens, museums, observatories, and meteorological observatories outside Nanjing... who felt that it was a waste of people and money, had to admit that Prince E was really far-sighted and strategizing.
It’s unimaginable, but it’s effective quickly and can immediately contribute to the world’s construction.
Everyone in the army was full of confidence in the subsequent war with the Qing army, and the troops were highly motivated to fight.
Time has finally entered September of the fifth year of Longwu.
It is the harvest season again, and all provinces have devoted their main domestic energy to ensuring the autumn harvest.
It seems that because the Little Ice Age is gradually receding, this year's harvest has generally rebounded slightly from the previous year.
Not only can the southern provinces be absolutely self-sufficient, but they can also ensure that there are still surplus grains that can be collected as military rations or purchased by the government for reserves.
Even Henan and Shaanxi, which had just been liberated a year or two respectively, actually achieved self-sufficiency for the first time.
Zhu Shuren had previously invited Longwu Emperor Zhu Changzi, and in the past two years, tax exemptions were still implemented for the newly recovered Henan and Shaanxi.
The main reason is that the Ming Dynasty was accustomed to relying solely on the fiscal revenue of the southern provinces to support the imperial court in the first four years. In addition, the capital was close to Nanjing, which was the core area of the wealth-rich area. There was no need for remote and poor areas to transport money and grain all the way to the capital to spend.
.
Since there will be a Northern Expedition in the future, even if there is a lot of grain grown in Henan and Shaanxi, the government can pay for it and store it locally as military grain for the future Northern Expedition. Why go to the trouble of centrally transporting it around the capital? This is not a waste of transportation capacity, but only increases in transit.
What a loss!
Therefore, from the fourth year to the sixth year of Longwu, the imperial court can even extend the grace period in the future. The requirements for Shaanxi and Henan are that they can support themselves, and they do not need to hand over a grain of grain to the imperial court, nor do they even need to pay a head tax in money.
Just stop asking the court for food relief.
There is really enough food in the local area and there is more than enough food. The imperial court spends money to buy your food. It is not in vain. After buying it, it will be used as military food for the troops stationed in the border areas of Henan and Shaanxi, reducing the amount of military food transported from the rear.
Moreover, during the de facto armistice between the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Zhu Shuren also reduced the number of troops stationed on the front line and did not send all the hundreds of thousands of Ming army's main troops to Henan, Shandong and northern Jiangsu because he knew that the Qing army did not have the strength to counterattack at the moment.
, tear up the peace.
Only tens of thousands of off-the-job standing troops were stationed on the front line to prepare for emergencies. The other off-the-job standing troops stayed in Huainan or even Jiangnan, eating directly in the grain-producing areas, and saving a lot of losses in transporting military rations to the northern frontier.
The troops remaining in Henan, except for a few retired elite soldiers, are all stationed soldiers who have to farm during busy farming periods. They grow their own food and are themselves grain producers. They can use the vast and sparsely populated abandoned land in Henan, so there is no need to
It's a burden.
In contrast, during this armistice period, the Qing army knew that it was already the weaker side and did not dare to restart the war for the time being. Therefore, it had to station heavy troops along the north bank of the Yellow River and the Taishan Mountains and go out of work.
The proportion is still high,
Therefore, the Qing army's use of military rations during the armistice period was not even much slower than during the war. If the stalemate continued, even if there was no war, Hauge could be killed by eating military rations within a few years!
The Han people under Hauge's rule were naturally under increasing pressure, and their anger was building up more and more, and they were already like a powder keg ready to explode.
Under such an environment, changes finally occurred in series.
On the 17th day of the ninth month of the fifth year of Longwu, Datong's commander-in-chief Jiang Quan, after enduring it for a long time, finally officially raised the flag. He contacted several other Han generals in southern Shanxi, plus the central and northern Shanxi areas under his own direct jurisdiction, and raised the flag.
Yi Zhi, officially announced to renounce the Qing Dynasty and surrender to the Ming Dynasty!
Jiang Yan chose this time, of course, after careful consideration.
As mentioned before, in late July and early August, he was already ready to take action due to Hauge's series of oppression, internal purges, and the transfer of Shanxi Manchu Qing troops to Hebei.
But at that time, Jiang Gu did not dare to take action directly. He still prepared for so long and held it in for a full month and a half. The purpose was to wait for the autumn harvest and the initial arrival of the autumn grain into the warehouse.
Shanxi is so poor! It is mountainous and has barren countryside. In the years when the Little Ice Age has just begun to recover, it is still difficult to be self-sufficient in food.
If the flag is raised at the end of July or early August, if Hauge quickly counterattacks, and the relatively fertile Fenshui River Valley, Yangquan River Valley and other places in the areas controlled by Jiang Gan are occupied by the Qing army, forcing Jiang Gan to defend the city, then
He may starve to death soon.
By mid-September, the harvested autumn grains were finally packed by Jiang Quanshi in his military grain warehouse. He finally became more courageous and felt that he could hold on until the Ming Dynasty's army came to support him no matter what!
Then he can become a hero anyway, dedicate at least half of the province's land to the Ming Dynasty, get a treatment similar to Wu Sangui's, and completely wash away his previous sins.
Of course, there are still military risks and difficulties. The main reason is that as the commander-in-chief of Datong, Jiang Yu can control and contact those who can instigate rebellion, at most, central and northern Shanxi.
As for the Yuncheng Basin, Zhongtiao Mountains, and even the Hanoi area in southern Shanxi, Jiang Gu could not instigate rebellion at all.
Once Jiang Quan seized the banner, his jurisdiction was separated from the Ming Dynasty's Henan jurisdiction by Huaiqing Prefecture in Henan Province, which is still controlled by the Qing army and is located north of the Yellow River. In addition to Pingyang Prefecture in the southwestern part of Shanxi,
Luzhou Prefecture, Zezhou Prefecture.
Therefore, after Jiang Quan took action, on the one hand, he had to guard the dangerous passes in the Taihang Mountains to prevent the Hebei Qing army from attacking in the east. On the other hand, he also had to send troops south for a sneak attack as soon as possible to try to capture the Henan province sandwiched between him and the Ming-controlled area.
, three prefectures in Shanxi were occupied, and the land contact between him and the Ming Dynasty was opened up, so that he could be considered completely safe.
Of course, before he sent out troops, he would definitely notify Ming Dynasty and urge Ming Dynasty's troops to stay in Luoyang and Kaifeng to go north and attack him from the north and south to knock down the four prefectures controlled by the Qing army. He could not just rely on himself.