Chapter 495 Dalinghe Fort is about to collapse (second update)
"Civil firearms? What's the use of them? Even if they are taken over, they won't be a match for Taiwan's army!" Chongzhen said disappointedly. []
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"Your Majesty, the muskets provided to the people in Taiwan are very advanced. According to my information, even Western muskets cannot be compared with them, and they are much more powerful than the muskets of the Daming Shenji Battalion. Compared with bows and arrows, they are more powerful. It's even bigger than reason.
The most important thing is that if we take those folk muskets from the Ming Dynasty, we can imitate them on a large scale ourselves. "Wu Rongtang naturally knew that the muskets distributed to civilians in Taiwan were much behind those in their military, but even so, they were much better than the Ming dynasty's muskets.
And the most important thing is that Ming Dynasty also got the information about Taiwan¡¯s latest muskets. The ammunition is integrated, it is not afraid of rain and weather, it has a long range, a high rate of fire, and the shooting accuracy is not comparable to ordinary guns.
Through merchants on the southern coast, Ming Dynasty also obtained several new Type 25 rifles. The original intention was to achieve the goal of being on the same starting line with Taiwan in terms of equipment through imitation, but after getting the rifle, the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were completely dumbfounded.
Ming craftsmen were able to imitate every component of these guns in appearance, but the problem was that those imitation muskets would always rust after being used for a period of time, making the entire musket useless.
This is not the most deadly thing, the most deadly thing is the bullet. No one could see how the bullet ignited.
(Free download of full text e-book) Not to mention, Taiwan¡¯s bullets are all made of refined copper. If Ming Dynasty wanted to make this bullet, the cost would completely destroy Ming Dynasty¡¯s finances. In short, although Ming Dynasty obtained the latest muskets from Taiwan, it was still unable to imitate them.
Later, according to the information obtained, the key to this musket-the bullet was made using something called mercury fulminate by the Taiwanese. And this kind of thing was made by a woman who was the thief chief Xiao Ming.
Now in Taiwan, only Taipei and Keelung have bullet manufacturing factories. In addition to craftsmen and factory managers, the only people who have access to bullet manufacturing are Xiao Mingqian, Tang Hongsheng and other absolute high-level officials. Anyone else who wants to get involved in bullet manufacturing will inevitably be targeted by Taiwan's Ministry of Internal Affairs. Moreover, the bullet manufacturing factory is guarded by an entire garrison division. It is really well-defended. It is basically impossible to obtain bullet manufacturing technology from Taiwan.
Under this situation, Wu Rongtang could only turn his attention to the muskets of Taiwanese civilians. After all, although these muskets will lose their effect on rainy days, under other subsequent conditions, they are still capable of resisting Taiwan's army.
"And Your Majesty, this is just our short-term strategy. I don't believe that millions of craftsmen in Ming Dynasty can't compare to a female doll! As long as we come up with that thing called mercury fulminate, we can compete head-on with Taiwan. In a dozen years, Taiwan can even be completely wiped out and all the land thousands of miles away from Taiwan can be taken away."
Ministers, especially those who want to rely on imperial power to do something, generally like to use big words to deceive the emperor. Only when the emperor is given a very tempting sight in his view, the emperor will spare no effort to support him.
Wang Anshi is like this, Zhang Juzheng is like this, Yuan Chonghuan is like this, and now Wu Rongtang is like this. However, Wu Rongtang is smarter and does not boast as much as Yuan Chonghuan. He increased the realization date of his strategy to ten or twenty years, and the short-term strategy can indeed achieve the set goals.
Under this situation, others could not catch his shortcomings at all, and at the same time, he could also gain the emperor's trust and reuse with the help of short-term effects.
The next day, Chongzhen issued an edict to recruit Xu Guangqi into the cabinet and concurrently served as minister of the Ministry of Industry. At the same time, Wu Rongtang was recruited into the cabinet and concurrently served as Minister of War. At the same time, a series of edicts were issued, all of which were aimed at reforming Taiwan's policies towards workers.
This move made those officials who were involved in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty feel dizzy. What followed was overwhelming opposition and impeachment. However, under the threat of annihilation, Emperor Chongzhen withstood these pressures and supported Wu Rongtang in carrying out reforms.
Of course, Wu Rongtang¡¯s reforms were limited to craftsmen and the army. Emperor Chongzhen would not agree to his comprehensive social changes. His purpose was just to increase the combat effectiveness of the Ming army. At least it can't be like now, with more than 300,000 troops surrounded by others.
As for Wu Rongtang, who has already entered the cabinet, why is he still serving as Minister of War? This is because the Minister of War is Sun Chengzong who is besieged in Dalinghe Fort. Emperor Chongzhen cannot be in someone else's house.?While you are working hard for the Ming Dynasty, let's give up other people's official positions. This doesn't make sense.
However, even if the changes did not touch the economic interests of the gentry class, opposition voices to this reform within the Ming Dynasty still emerged one after another, which greatly restricted the Ming Dynasty's efforts to invest in reforms. Improving the status of craftsmen has almost become an empty talk. Although it has some effects, it is not enough to improve the situation of the Ming Dynasty.
On the contrary, the establishment of troops equipped with new muskets by Wu Rongtang had a certain effect. In the following years, the Ming Dynasty established a total of more than 200,000 troops equipped with new muskets. In the process of suppressing resistance internally and resisting Taiwan externally, it has achieved remarkable results.
However, this kind of change that cannot change the fundamental decay of the Ming Dynasty is destined to only play a certain enlightenment role in society and break the ideological dominance of Confucianism, but it cannot realize the hopes of Emperor Chongzhen.
All of these are just changes that Ming Dynasty had to make in response to the threat from Taiwan, but they have no meaning to Hong Chengchou who is in Shanhaiguan and the more than 300,000 Ming Dynasty troops surrounded by Taiwan's army.
At this time, the morale of the army in Dalinghe Fort has reached its lowest point. The eighteen-day siege has caused a shortage of food and grass in Dalinghe Fort. Ordinary soldiers can only eat one meal a day made of mung beans. This kind of military ration is bland and tasteless. If Taiwanese soldiers were allowed to eat it, they would not be able to swallow it.
But even this kind of thing has now become the last hope for the Ming army in Dalinghe Fort. Whenever they stood on the city wall and smelled the aroma of food wafting from the Taiwanese army camp, most of the soldiers felt that surrender was not a big deal. If it weren't for Sun Chengzong's strong suppression, Dalinghe Fort would have collapsed long ago.
However, after being surrounded for eighteen days, the situation has changed somewhat. These changes eventually led to the collapse of Dalinghe Fort and the death of Sun Chengzong.