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Volume 1: The Arms Dealer¡¯s Feast Chapter 287: The Establishment of the Guangdong and Guangxi Armies

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    In the second year of Chongzhen (1629), the Lushan went south again and loaded cargo and immigrants near the Pearl River estuary in Guangzhou.  Sold some Australian mirrors to Portuguese merchants in Macau and merchants in the Ming Dynasty here.

    It is said that there is quite a market for this Australian treasure mirror near the stable and prosperous Guangzhou. The Lushan number is sold for 5,000 taels of silver per piece. After these people buy it, they add precious mahogany frames or directly put it on the screen, and it changes hands for eight dollars.  Sell ??it at a high price of one thousand taels, ten thousand taels or even 20,000 taels - this is nothing to the salt merchants with a net worth of tens of millions. What you need to pay attention to when you reach the level of net worth of tens of millions is that all the food, clothing, housing and transportation are superior to others. What you have, I will have.  , I also have what you don¡¯t have.

    This is of course the method used by merchants in the Ming Dynasty. For Portuguese merchants, if it can be shipped to Europe, the price equivalent to silver will be at least two hundred thousand taels. Venice, which monopolizes glass technology, has always refused to lower the price of glass products. The Queen of France got married  A small mercury mirror presented by the King of Italy at that time was worth up to 150,000 gold francs - it was also the only mercury mirror in France. It was far smaller than the Australian mirror and the clarity of the mercury mirror was far inferior to that of the silver-plated Australian mirror.  match.

    Because the Lushan was delayed a little while recruiting refugees from various places to board the ship and selling some goods near Macau when it went south, the great victory of the new army of Yang He and Hong Chengchou in Shaanxi was also spread to Guangzhou through the imperial palace newspaper.

    Because of frequent transactions with Ming Dynasty merchants, this Di Bao of Shaanxi's great victory in suppressing bandits was also indirectly transmitted to the Lushan Bugler. The role of the Imperial Di Bao was equivalent to that of the Central Daily News. In many places, people went to the Yamen to copy a copy every day.  When I took it home and looked at it, I found that there was no big secret in it. For a place as far away as Guangdong, it was already old news from a month ago.

    After reading the Di newspaper, the Lushan crew members all discussed: "Well done, Lao Hong is going to become the second Li Hongzhang."

    "Let's not talk about that scum Li Hongzhang. He holds military power and doesn't want to rebel against the Manchu Tatars."

    "In Li Hongzhang's time, loyalty to the emperor and patriotism were still the mainstream ideas. Moreover, Cixi, the leader of the Qing court at the time, treated him and Zeng Guofan very well. Later, during the Yuan Shikai period after Cixi's death, the Manchu Qing Dynasty could no longer trust the Han ministers to control the army, so they sent Yuan Shikai to  Go home to eat grass. Yuan Shikai met heroes from all walks of life at home, and those who came gave him a small yellow croaker as a reward, which indirectly helped the revolutionaries. When the Manchu princes could not stop the revolutionaries' bombs, Yuan Shikai  Comeback has become a certainty. With the strength of the Beiyang New Army at that time, it was easy to destroy the Southern Revolutionary Party. However, Yuan Shikai was afraid that the Manchu Qing royal family would do something like this again, so he conspired with the Southern Revolutionary Party to overthrow it.  Just like Lin Zexu, although he was a loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty, wasn't he also a national hero? In the final analysis, we have to look at it dialectically." Zhang Leping said.

    Zhang Leping added: "This incident tells us that we should not underestimate the heroes of the world. This Hong Chengchou was a figure before and after he surrendered to the Tatars. It is exactly this: Duke Zhou was afraid of the day of rumors, and Wang Mang was a humble corporal. If he had been there that year  If he dies, who knows the authenticity of his life? If Hong Chengchou had been more lucky and had not been captured alive in the Songshan Battle, he would not have been able to be mentioned in the Legend of Erchen."

    While everyone on the bridge was talking, an old immigrant responsible for resettling new immigrants came in and reported: "The staff of Wang Dezun, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, are here to meet."

    Diplomacy was a matter for the titular head of state Jin Sanduo. Jin Sanduo asked Zhang Leping: "Who is this Wang Dezun?"

    Zhang Leping turned on the computer, searched the data for a while and then said: "The governor of Guangdong and Guangxi who was promoted last year was a cannon-making madman in the late Ming Dynasty. During his term of office, he cast more than 500 large and medium-sized Western iron cannons. More than Xu Guangqi built in Beijing.  Most of these artillery were later used to suppress bandits or transported to Liaodong to fight against the Qing Dynasty."

    Jin Sanduo asked: "Are you here for the arms?"

    "It's true. I guess after seeing the imperial report, I discovered that this big Australian iron ship couldn't sit still at the mouth of the Pearl River."

    Jin Sanduo asked: "How many Type 1628 fast guns and steel cannons does the Lushan have?"

    A Ying, who is also Jin Sanduo's secretary (this is indeed a promise to be a secretary when there is something to do, but when there is nothing to do), she looked through the Lushan's account book and said: "The Lushan's inventory of Type 1628 fast guns is now 2,700 pieces.  Due to the use of mechanized assembly line production, the daily output is now more than 350 pieces. However, sometimes it is necessary to cast artillery, occupying the crucible, and it is not possible to produce fast guns 24 hours a day. There are 107 Dahuzun steel cannons in stock. Hongyi  There are 26 steel cannons in stock. Because they are cast in a whole mold, the cannon production speed is quite fast as long as no guns are produced."

    Since it was easy to find out the pulse, Jin Sanduo immediately went to meet with Wang Dezun's staff.

    The whole story of the matter was pretty much guessed by the crew on board the Lushan, but what Wang Dezun, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, wanted to do most was to build a new army like Yang He - although the money in the Guangdong treasury cannot be tampered with, but let  The big businessmen in Guangdong would like to return some favors.It can be done, after all, She Chongming and An Bangyan are causing great trouble in the northwest and once invaded Sichuan.

    Almost all the troops of the Ming Dynasty in the south joined the battle against the Guizhou chieftains. Wang Dezun, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, read the residence report of Hong Chengchou and Yang He and thought that if he had such a new army equipped with Australian fast guns and steel cannons,  It will definitely be easy to win the battle, and maybe I will be able to advance to the cabinet by then.  This She'an rebellion has been raging for many years and should have been eliminated long ago.  Another thing is that Guangdong is not short of money and food, but it really lacks a combat-effective army.

    It is rare to see an Australian ship buying goods near Macau at the Pearl River Estuary to recruit refugees. Just when you want to sleep, someone will give you pillows.  There is still a problem with sending personnel to the big iron ship in Australia. Wang Dezun wants to send someone with official status - but no one is willing to go. Wang Dezun, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, is our immediate boss. It is true, but it is beyond his duties.  Everyone just pushed things aside.  Go on that big iron ship to meet the Australians. Who can you go to if you can't get off? After all, the Australians won't get off the ship easily. The common people are greedy for profit and go to the ship to buy and sell goods. We are all cultural people, so we don't lose this share - then  The Australians are not under the jurisdiction of the Ming Dynasty and do not follow Ming Dynasty laws. If they go there, they are really on a pirate ship. If something happens, they will not be able to clean themselves up.

    In the end, an aide from Wang Dezun¡¯s house volunteered to go to the Australian ship to negotiate.  This staff member is called Ya Yi'an, a scholar from Guangdong Province. In the Ming Dynasty, it was really hard to get a single-plank bridge to take the examination. Ya Yi'an was also one of the people who fell into the water. Because he traveled to Macau several times and corresponded with the local Portuguese, he gradually got this  Wang Dezun's fancy.

    Ya Yi'an knew that he was an errand boy.  So when he saw that the Governor was worried about the people going to the Australian Iron Ship, he immediately recommended himself to go to the Australian Iron Ship to help the Governor handle the matter beautifully. From now on, his words in front of the Governor would have a little more weight -  - You must know that the staff of the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi is not just one or two people, but a group of people, including many officials who have been promoted or promoted to official positions, and there are even two Jinshis among them. Relatively speaking, Ya Yi'an squeezed into the staff of the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi as a scholar.  The group can be regarded as the Governor-General and Corporal Lixian.

    Ya Yi'an sneaked into Wang Dezun's staff not only to make a living, but if things were done well, at least he would be known as a capable person.  In the future, before Wang Dezun takes office, he will definitely be given a job in the officialdom. At least he can be recommended to the Imperial Academy or as an aide to the next Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi.  Generally speaking, this is a way to rise, and there is no need to squeeze into the single-plank bridge of the rural examination.

    Ya Yi also observed secretly after getting on the big iron ship. Normally, since the big iron ship is made of iron, it should be very hard.  When boarding the ship, Ya Yi'an also knocked on the side of the big iron ship, and sure enough he got this answer.  But after getting on the boat, the deck felt soft and soft, and the feeling on the feet was like falling clouds. Ya Yi'an felt like he had stepped on mud balls that did not stick to his shoes, but he did not know that the blanket on the deck was  What kind of raw material is it made of that has such effect?

    Looking at the soldiers on the deck, although they are not tall, they are all strong and strong. In terms of their mental appearance, they are already like the servants of the Ming Dynasty. They just don't have iron armor on them, but they still have helmets with yellow and green circles.  As bright as the Ming Army's octagonal helmet - Lushan is currently unable to produce nylon fiber body armor, but the technical content of the helmet is quite simple and has an excellent protective effect against firearms, explosive fragments or cold weapons. Just open a mold and cast it.  Australian workers will also be able to use it in the future.

    An alloy helmet only weighs two kilograms, and an alloy breastplate doesn't weigh much.  This is also the ultimate equipment given to the iron artillery team by Australian traversers.

    If these are nothing, then after Ya Yian arrived at the reception room of the Lushan, the people below gave Ya Yian a cup of tea and really calmed Ya Yian down.  The tea leaves were from the Ming Dynasty and were not top-notch, but the tea sets used to make tea were made of colorless glass. For this set of tea sets made of colorless glass, Ya Yi'an felt that it was worth at least a thousand gold.

    Although the Xiyi people also sell glass in Guangzhou, glass has been around since the Ming Dynasty. According to history books, glass has been around since the Western Zhou Dynasty. However, no matter what era, the use of glass is synonymous with luxury life.  Most of the glassware in the Ming Dynasty was supplied to the royal family.  But just like the Forbidden City uses gold bricks to pave the floor, and wealthy families can use fake gold bricks to pave the floor, everyone has seen this glassware, which made a group of Westerners who wanted to sell glass as gems laughed at.  (The fifty-nine chapters of Dream of Red Mansions record the names of the four maids of the Jia family: Yuanyang, Amber, Jade, and Glass)

    However, in this era, whether it was Venice or the Ming Dynasty, there were only colored glass instead of colorless glass. As for the flat glass used to make large mirrors, according to history, it had to wait until the Belgians invented it in the 19th century - although there were Western introductions in this era.  The monocularA telescope, but the lens is green because it contains iron. Not only is it expensive, but it can't see very far and it's still unclear - in the eyes of those traveling through the Lushan Cruise, it's just a toy to deceive children.

    "The lives of these Australians are really luxurious." Ya Yi'an looked at the tea leaves floating in the colorless glass teacup and felt that tasting tea like this was the greatest enjoyment of her life.

    After Jin Sanduo checked Wang Dezun's information and came to the reception room to meet Ya Yi'an and both parties sat down by name, Ya Yi'an also made a request: "Your ship has fast guns and steel cannons, which are urgently needed by our Ming Dynasty.  But at this price, can we give in a little more? I have visited the factories that cast Hongyi cannons and muskets in Foshan. A Hongyi cannon weighing several kilograms only costs a few hundred gold. A bird gun only costs a few hundred gold.  Gold. How can you sell it so expensively?"

    Jin Sanduo had already heard this statement, and immediately asked: "How much does Baili Steel cost per kilogram in Foshan? The quality of the alloy steel used in the steel cannons we cast is even better than that of Baili Steel."  Much more. According to the weight, even if the barrel of the gun is broken, you will still make money by turning it into molten steel, so why bother here."

    Ya Yi'an also knew that the Australians' goods were in short supply, so he would not bargain.  However, there are still ways to exploit loopholes. Ya Yi'an asked: "If we barter, how much can we give?"

    Australians need all kinds of products, from brown sugar, porcelain, tea, pig iron, population, cattle and sheep, alcohol, leather goods, seeds, traditional Chinese medicine, patent medicine, wood, etc. There is almost nothing they don¡¯t want.  As for silver, both the Youth City and the Lushan now have hundreds of thousands of taels of silver in reserve from selling mirrors, so there is really no shortage of silver.  And because the currency of Australian currency is very poor now, most people¡¯s wages and salaries are calculated using daily necessities plus a small amount of silver. For most immigrants, having enough to eat and clothes to wear is already a paradise.  , not to mention that the owner is building the house and paying wages - although the house price will be deducted from the wages for three years.

    Jin Sanduo came up with a list: "The price of the first category of materials can be increased by 30% according to the market price in Guangzhou, the price of the second category of materials can be increased by 20% according to the market price in Guangzhou, and the price of the third category of materials can be increased by 10% according to the market price in Guangzhou.  . Among them, we can eat as much pig iron and copper as the first category of materials."

    Ya Yi'an looked at the list and breathed a sigh of relief. Although this pig iron is also one of the nationally controlled materials, if the pig iron can be exchanged for more powerful Australian fast guns and steel cannons, I believe the Governor will not be so serious.  Foshan alone in Guangdong produced tens of thousands of kilograms of iron every day. You must know that this was only the official output of craftsmen controlled by the Guangdong government in the Ming Dynasty. Without this confidence, Wang Dezun would not have been able to take the lead in the trend of casting Hongyi cannons.

    This time we arrived at Jin Sanduo and asked: "I wonder how many fast guns and steel cannons you are going to buy, so we can be prepared."

    Ya Yi'an replied: "The Governor wants to imitate Yang He and build a new army. He needs three thousand Australian fast guns, one hundred Australian big tiger steel cannons, and the more Australian red barbarian steel cannons, the better."  , at least thirty doors."

    "No problem. When your goods are on the ship, we will barter batches of them." Jin Sanduo combined the inventory of the Lushan, the existing equipment of the iron artillery team and the production speed of the Lushan, and he was able to make up.  from.

    The completion of the arms deal here was delayed for some days. The Lushan ship had to wait for Wang Dezun to stock up and went to Vietnam and Northern Korea for a few days to haul food. There are now nearly 10,000 people on the ship and some large animals, which are eaten by people every day.  What a horse chews is not a small number.  Although there is rice in Guangdong, the price is really not cheap, not to mention more than four times that in Vietnam. Moreover, people who travel through time know that the price of rice will be higher and higher in the future in the Ming Dynasty, so naturally they will not buy food here.

    During these days when the Lushan was docked near the Pearl River Estuary in Guangzhou, Hong Chengchou's new army in Shaanxi reported good news frequently.  Hong Chengchou's 5,000 new troops defeated all the gangsters in Shaanxi. The heads of dozens of rebel bandits in Shaanxi, such as Du San, Yang Laochai and other peasant army leaders, were also chopped off by Hong Chengchou.  Even more peasant soldiers were killed.

    The new army established by Yang He and Hong Chengchou did not bother to kill good people and take credit for their merits, but they could not let go of those who were rebels. Yang He wanted to kill them all, but this new army under Hong Chengchou  The army killed so many people that every time after the war, they killed all the people without leaving any prisoners.  According to Hong Chengchou's memorial alone, the number of beheadings since the founding of the New Army exceeded 200,000.  On average, each of the 5,000 new troops had to behead more than forty heads.

    This bloody red terror really scared many peasant soldiers.  Either he changed his clothes and went home to chew tree bark, or he threw an olive branch to Mr. Yang Heyang and prepared to accept the government's recruitment. Of course, there were some who were dissatisfied and thought that the great victory of the government and army was just bragging - because most of the witnesses went to see him.  Because of the King of Hell, in ancient times when communications were not very good, rumors were often spread. These people were led by Zijin Liang, Zhang Xianzhong, Gao Yingxiang, Luo Rucai, etc.Continue to fight guerrillas with the army.

    Because most of the soldiers in Shaanxi and Gansu mutinied and joined the peasant army, even if Hong Chengchou killed more than 200,000 heads in this land of Shaanxi and Gansu, it still could not change the situation of many thieves and few soldiers.

    Every head of the Peasant Army is a bloody tribute. Because of these merits, Hong Chengchou was promoted to the governor of Yansui in the second year of Chongzhen, and was appointed the crown prince and Taibao. As for the latest award, the court is still discussing it.  Although considering that Hong Chengchou had just been promoted to governor of Yansui, it was unlikely that he would be promoted, but it was possible that he would be given the title of Sanxian or his family or Yinzi or even his ancestors.

    This naturally made Wang Dezun of Guangdong even more excited - in other words, Wang Dezun, the governor of Guangdong and Guangdong, felt that he might have reached the end of his career as an official, but Wang Dezun also had a family and children. If he could support his son to become an official, it would be much better than trying to squeeze in the single-plank bridge of the imperial examination.  , not to mention that after making great contributions, the court will inevitably grant you a title, and it is such an honor to get an alchemy and iron coupon to be passed down to your family.  In view of this, Wang Dezun ordered his subordinates to speed up stocking, and even swept up almost all the iron materials in the Guangzhou market and sent them to the Australian iron ships.

    As batches of goods were delivered, the Australian fast guns and steel cannons also came into the hands of Wang Dezun. Wang Dezun, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, was satisfied that the Australians were quite reliable in doing things. Although they said they would not bargain if they didn't, the goods  They were all given half a percent more.

    Before getting the first batch of Australian arms, Wang Dezun first recommended a nephew of his family named Wang Xuewen, who was promoted from guerrilla to general.  In the Ming Dynasty, the nobles and military officers were cheap, and the generals were worthless. Besides, no one would offend a feudal official who controlled Guangdong and Guangxi for such a trivial matter.  After receiving the first batch of Australian arms, Wang Dezun began to ask his nephew Wang Xuewen to form a new army to practice the Australian fast guns and steel cannons.  According to Wang Dezun's calculations, after these new troops are trained, it is estimated that the imperial court's decree to promote Wang Xuewen to the rank of general will be almost reached.  (To be continued. Please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!)
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