stubborn thief

The Ordnance Bureau within the city of Xi'an.

There was a snap.

Liu Chengzong gripped a short-handled double-barreled flintlock musket and pulled the trigger. The right barrel failed to fire, so he pulled the other trigger.

With a bang, ten small iron pellets, each worth one qian (approximately 3.3 grams), burst through the smoke in the firelight and scattered, hitting the wooden target ten paces away.

When He Xin, the head of the military office, saw that his attempt to vent his anger had failed, his face stiffened.

He was a musket maker who joined Liu Chengzong's forces with Shi Chengwo back then, and he was also a veteran during the early days of the Lion Camp.

However, in Shaanxi at that time, the technology of making muskets was not considered core technology, so his official position was always below that of Shi Chengwo.

This time, he specially brought over newly manufactured weapons from Xining, combining his experience with heavy guns and matchlock guns. He used two gun barrels, two flintlock triggers, and two triggers, which was basically two guns combined together.

It can fire a single large lead bullet and multiple small iron balls separately. The barrel has been shortened, making it much lighter than a heavy gun.

Its power is immense within ten to thirty steps.

It is a military instrument suitable for hunting and self-defense, with the goal of equipping tiger hunters and tiger killers in various counties to solve the tiger problem in Shaanxi.

He tested it many times at the Juerwan Ordnance Bureau in Xining. After many adjustments to the trigger spring, the firing rate was already very high. At least He Xin never encountered a situation where the firing failed.

Ironically, when the gun was presented to Liu Chengzong, it didn't fire on the very first shot.

However, Liu Shizi didn't take it seriously.

He knew this was an inevitable process. Back then, when they were manufacturing heavy guns and matchlock muskets in Qinghai, they chose to equip the matchlock muskets with a trigger mechanism, and both the light and heavy guns used matchlocks, precisely because of the problem of low firing rate.

Even his Imperial Guards, who were equipped with hundreds of captured flintlock pistols, complained about their low firing rate, as those pistols were actually of lower quality than the ones they made themselves.

This is normal.

Therefore, he merely glanced at the dense outline of the scattered bullets hitting the target, nodded slightly, and restarted the firing mechanism.

He Xin's heart was in his throat.

Fortunately, the gun performed admirably this time. With a bang, the left barrel, loaded with one or two lead bullets, successfully fired, drilling a deep hole in the wooden target.

The harsh treatment He Xin had imagined did not occur.

Liu Shizi simply held up the not-so-light double-barreled flintlock musket and praised it, saying, "A very good weapon. In terms of manufacturing time, how does it compare to light and heavy muskets?"

The recognition of the self-made weapons overjoyed He Xin. His eyes were filled with surprise, and his tone became lighter. He cupped his hands and said, "Reporting to the commander, the total working time is slightly longer than that of the heavy gun, but once it is actually manufactured, I estimate that the output will be greater than that of the light gun."

"Long working hours but high output?"

Liu Shizi asked, puzzled, "Why is that?"

"Flint-fired guns have more parts and require more manpower than matchlock-fired guns. The double-barreled design also requires more manpower, essentially making two guns at the same time, just sharing a breech."

"But the Irvine Ordnance Bureau had plenty of craftsmen, artisans, and apprentices. The key to limiting the production of light, heavy, and breech-loading rifles was drilling the barrels."

Liu Shizi knew this: regardless of whether several sections of gun barrel were forged and welded or rolled and hammered, after the gun barrel was made, the inside of the bore needed to be ground and drilled using a vertical drilling machine.

It's not for drilling holes in seamless steel pipes, but for polishing.

This is also the most time-consuming work; under normal circumstances, it takes a month to fully polish a single musket barrel.

The quality of this step directly affects the chance of the musket exploding.

The barrel explosion is a simple matter.

Simply put, a gun is a tube with an opening on one side. The goal is to ignite the gunpowder inside, causing it to release gas. The larger the volume of gas, the more it propels the bullet out of the barrel. The faster the gas expands, the higher the bullet's muzzle velocity.

A barrel explosion occurs when the barrel of a gun becomes blocked.

The steel pipe with an opening on one side became a homemade bomb sealed off on both sides.

If the barrel is not polished during manufacturing and lead bullets are fired, lead will stick to the barrel wall. If it sticks, it will block the next lead bullet, and then the barrel will explode.

This process determines the manufacturing cycle of the entire musket, and under the current technological level, the working time is difficult to shorten.

He Xin explained, "Although this gun has two barrels combined into one, its advantage lies in the two-foot barrel, which can be drilled in just ten days. With the addition of drilling machine craftsmen, its output is actually greater than that of the light gun."

It's basically just that the manufacturing cycle is shorter.

After all, the manufacturing of firearms, such as the small parts of the gun mechanism and the woodwork of the gun bed, is very simple. Only the process of drilling the gun barrel takes a long time. No matter how many production lines are running at the same time, the production cycle of light guns is still one month.

The production cycle of this short double-barreled gun was the same as that of the Tangqi standard three-barreled gun. With the same number of craftsmen, its output was three times that of the light gun and 1.5 times that of the three-barreled gun.

Compared to other military equipment, it is easier to leverage the scale of handicraft industry that the Marshal's Office has accumulated over the years in Irvine.

"If double-barreled guns were equipped on tiger hunters and tiger killers, each county would need at least two guns in a coordinated operation."

Liu Shizi had just experienced a failed firing of the flintlock during a trial run. He thought that although it was easy to flip the flint again, the tiger was faster. Therefore, when he saw the tiger pounce, he would most likely impulsively draw his knife and attack.

Therefore, at least two flintlock pistols are needed to work together; otherwise, the flintlock pistols might fail to ignite.

Thinking of this, he turned to Zhou Riqiang and asked, "Would this kind of self-propelled firearm be useful for hunting in Taimengwei?"

Zhou Riqiang first shook his head, then nodded, and said, "Reporting to the commander, this weapon is exquisite and useful for defense in battles at Taimengwei Fortress, but for hunting... a bow and arrow are still better."

He explained, "The sable fur is ruined by the scrambled eggs."

Liu Chengzong nodded; he had indeed not considered this matter.

The best way to hunt is still to rely on hunters to set traps, especially for small animals like mink whose furs are expensive. Ten loose pellets can ruin a single pelt.

Even if weapons must be used for hunting, it is best to have an experienced hunter use a bow and arrow to accurately shoot through the eye, thus preserving the fur as intact as possible.

But that's a skill that requires extraordinary expertise, and even Liu Shizi can't guarantee he can do it every time.

If you can shoot through the target three out of ten times, you're already a master among masters.

"At present, Taimengwei has established itself in the western border. You two Zhou will hold the border there. Let Chuhuer fight the battles in the west. Once he has expanded his territory by two thousand li, let him come back and be granted the title of Shibier Khan."

Liu Chengzong didn't actually have any ambition for that land; he just wanted to support a force that was eyeing the western gateway.

He said to Zhou Riqiang, "Go back and just focus on improving the defense and combat capabilities of Tai Mengwei with Zhou Yijing, and spread the king's influence. If you have extra strength, go east to subdue the tribes in the forest. The territory of the Marshal's Mansion is getting bigger and bigger, and we can take in as many furs as we want."

"As for those Rus' strongholds and fortresses that have infiltrated along the river, take them if you can, and leave the rest to time."

Liu Chengzong and Zhou Riqiang were talking about going back and pooling their wisdom to deal with the Rus' stronghold that had infiltrated Siberia through a combination of coercion, inducement, and soft tactics.

Footsteps came from outside the Ordnance Bureau. A Imperial Guard cavalryman, his horse already tied up, strode into the drill ground and said, "General, urgent news from the northern desert."

Liu Chengzong was stunned when he heard this. He frowned slightly and asked in bewilderment, "The Northern Desert?"

In his memory, there was no post road connecting the Marshal's Mansion to the northern desert.

But it's already connected.

The post road was established by Yang Qi, the governor of the Southern Mongolian Protectorate. Because Huang Taiji and Emperor Chongzhen had both granted him the title of prince, Yang Qi rode all the way back to Xi'an, missing Liu Chengzong's grand eastern expedition and thus losing a military opportunity.

Although he did not have this military achievement, he was still the Marshal's Office's greatest contributor to the southern grasslands based solely on his earlier defense of Guihua City against Dorgon.

After all, their value is different.

In the Lingdong Campaign, the commander was Liu Chengzong. As long as you followed Liu Chengzong's orders, even the simpletons in the Zongren Battalion could achieve merit.

Yang Qi's resistance against Dorgon in Guihua City was different; that was taking charge on his own.

Moreover, Yang Qi is now a legendary figure in the world, a prince successively conferred by the Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, and the Marshal's Mansion.

In terms of status, position, and legendary status, even His Excellency Zhang Yichuan, the Supreme Emperor of the Ancient Yuan Dynasty, the Commander-in-Chief of Henan Province, and the Commander of Gaoyou Guard of the Ming Dynasty, was slightly inferior.

However, Yang Qi suffered far more than Zhang Yichuan for this achievement. Just the fact that he traveled 1,500 li in three days is something that not everyone can do.

Yang Qi ran so hard that several horses collapsed. After receiving the investiture of the Prince of Shunyi from the Marshal's Mansion, he returned to the southern desert to command the three towns. The first thing he did was to build post roads. He also sent people to invite the three Khans of the northern desert to connect the post roads in the southern and northern deserts.

But this matter was not fully accomplished.

Gunbhan did not even see his envoy, only saying that he was ill.

This is easy to understand.

The fact that most Mongol nobles disliked Liu Chengzong was not entirely due to Liu Chengzong's fault.

In this era, the favor and obedience of the noyans of the grasslands to the Khan were directly proportional to their power and inversely proportional to their status.

The greater one's power, the more one needs a Khan to increase one's authority and eliminate the threats posed by other tribes; and the higher one's status, the more one feels that one could also become a Khan.

Therefore, when Liu Chengzong declared himself Khan, his strongest supporter was Batur Khuntaiji of Choros.

No matter how unorthodox or wicked this Liu fellow may be, could he possibly be more wicked than this Choros?

They were genuine forest dwellers, and even the name Oirat bestowed upon them by Genghis Khan meant 'close'.

No matter how close a friend is, you can't invite them into your home to be the host.

For Gunbu Khan, who had a strong sense of ownership, accepting the investiture, not resisting, obeying orders but not proclamations, and living his own life behind closed doors was already the biggest concession he could make to Liu Chengzong, the illegitimate Khan.

Now, not to mention Liu Chengzong, even one of Liu Chengzong's lackeys dares to send people to the northern desert to boss him around and tell him what to do.

This is something Gunbu Khan absolutely cannot accept.

Subadi Khan, however, was willing but unable. In the battle of Lingdong, he sent 7,000 soldiers, more than half of whom were killed or wounded. Although he brought back a large amount of spoils and rewards, he still had to appease the complaints of the nobles and was busy holding a conference and holding a funeral to deal with the aftermath.

He had no time to spare for building post roads.

There are no roads on the grasslands at all. The desert, Gobi, mountains and riverbeds stretch between the south and north of the Gobi. How easy is it to build a road that is convenient for people to drive on?
They simply established a few outposts at the winter camps of each unit to facilitate the transmission of letters.

The one most enthusiastic about this matter was actually the Chechen Khan, Shuo Lei, who had always kept his distance from Liu Chengzong.

In fact, after Babtaiji, who had been observing the battle in Chechnya, returned and told Shuolei Khan about his experiences in the Battle of Lingdong and Liu Chengzong's various deployments, Shuolei found Liu Chengzong, that foolish Khan, quite amusing.

He's all about military command, but he has absolutely no political acumen or intelligence.

A war led by Liu Chengzong resulted in the deaths of over 100,000 people from the Marshal, the Later Jin, and the surrounding areas of Mongolia and Khorchin.

As a result, the Ming Dynasty, which did not participate in the war, was the one that benefited the most and suffered the least.

The Ming Dynasty was clearly Liu Chengzong's greatest enemy in the world. He built Songmo Prefecture City in the Xing'an Mountains, taking the initiative to help the enemy seal the biggest weakness on their flank.

This action is practically blatantly admitting I'm an idiot.

Now, isn't the Ming Dynasty invincible?
Even at its peak, the Later Jin dynasty couldn't break through the Guan-Ning defense line from the front. Now, with its troops severely damaged and its strength greatly diminished, it's even less likely to launch a strong attack on Guan-Ning.

If the Eight Banners nobles were still clear-headed, they would not have staked the fate of the nation on the Songmo Prefecture.

Wouldn't that free up the Ming Dynasty's resources to launch a full-scale attack on the Marshal's Mansion?
This has led Shuo Lei to consider submitting a letter of surrender to Huang Taiji, as following a clueless fool like Huang Taiji offers no future.

It would be better to provide timely assistance and replace the Khorchin in the Later Jin state.

Of course, Shuo Lei wasn't that impulsive.

Even if he were truly a fool, his battlefield dominance—commanding tens of thousands of troops across the desert, traversing mountains and valleys, achieving victory after victory, and even orchestrating large-scale flanking maneuvers—would still be like that of a god descended to earth.

He believes it remains to be seen which side the Chechen Khanate will lean towards.

Shuo Lei simply wrote a letter to Huang Taiji explaining why his son Babu had appeared by Liu Chengzong's side, and also sent a small gift as a courtesy to his friend.

Half a month after Babutaiji returned to the Chechen Khanate, Shulei took his son out hunting. Watching the hunting dogs fight over the spoils, a sudden realization flashed through his mind.

Cheng Zong, that villain, built Songmo Prefecture in the Xing'an Mountains. He didn't consider the Ming Dynasty as an opponent at all; he only treated it as a customer of his robbery service, protecting his prey.

Realizing this, Shuo Leihan immediately put an end to the idea of ​​surrendering to the Later Jin.

This is an era where the old aristocracy is in constant fear. The clever Khan from the east and the foolish Khan from the west, two of the world's top robbers, have successfully been matched up on the same battlefield.

This made these old nobles live in constant fear, like fish on a chopping board.

Liu Chengzong and Huang Taiji were the two greatest threats to the world in Shuo Lei's eyes, but Huang Taiji posed a greater threat to him.

Because of the greater distance, Liu Chengzong has too many targets to rob. As long as the other man doesn't jump on Liu Chengzong's face and stomp around, the cost of robbing him wouldn't even cover the travel expenses.

Huang Taiji is different.

In his view, the next two years will be the most frenzied time for the Later Jin Dynasty.

If we put ourselves in their shoes, Shuo Lei would find that within a radius of three thousand li, the Later Jin Kingdom was neither as fat as Korea nor as tender as the Ming Dynasty; only the Chechen Khanate, with its mix of fat and lean, was the most palatable opponent.

While weighing the pros and cons, Shuo Lei met with Yang Qi's envoy from the southern desert and learned that Yang Qi wanted to build post roads in the north and south of the desert.

Shuo Lei Khan not only agreed wholeheartedly, but also wished he could lift all four hooves of his warhorse as well.

In any case, he was different from other major feudal lords in the northern deserts. The entire Chechen Khanate was his territory, and he simply waved his hand.

Let's stop focusing on building post stations. Good road conditions mean reinforcements will arrive quickly. Let's build roads directly, as far as we can, and try to build them all the way to Shangdu.

It was precisely because the desert post road organized by Yang Qi was put into construction and there was no shortage of people and horses along the way that Erdeni's letters were able to reach Shaanxi at an extremely fast speed.

Liu Shizi was still in Xi'an Prefecture discussing with Zhou Riqiang how to gradually deal with the Russo troops in Siberia.

The Marshal's Office, whose members knew Siberia best, brainstormed and discussed using both threats and inducements, and a combination of soft and hard tactics.

An urgent letter arrived from the north, and the problem that had been troubling him had already been resolved for him by Erdeni Khuntaiji of Uvs Lake.

"They've cut off our supply lines."

Clutching the letter, Liu Shizi smiled at Zhou Riqiang and said, "The Huntaiji of the Toghit tribe has cut off the road, and the Jinchuan camp has recruited more than a thousand Rus' soldiers. The Rus' camps north of the Gobi Desert have no field troops left this time!" (End of this chapter)