Da Ming Tai Shi

Chapter 465 Artillery Commander Zhu Yu

Guangzhou Port, the most prosperous place in the world in the [-]th century, is unquestionable and unrivaled.

After more than ten years of development, especially after Chen Yunfu took power, he spared no effort to encourage industry and commerce, which has made Guangzhou Port far more prosperous than in the Song Dynasty. The so-called daily sailing is no longer enough to describe the current Guangzhou Port.

Just as Hu Sizong reported to Chen Yunfu here, the Guangzhou Port Authority is the largest bureau-level government office in the country, with more than 3000 officials and employees.

Such a huge number has even approached that of all the civil servants in the entire province of Guangxi on the eve of the establishment of the Guangxi Production and Construction Corps ten years ago.

But today, Guangzhou Port is as quiet as a pool of stagnant water. All the ports are heavily blocked. Except for the imperial ships, there is no trace of local merchant ships in Guangzhou or merchant ships from foreign barbarians.

"Why is Guangzhou Port out of service today?"

Chen Jiading was confused, muttering and distressing in his heart.

If the Guangzhou Port is out of service, let alone a day, even for an hour or a quarter of an hour, it will cost thousands or even tens of thousands of taels of money in vain.

After this stop for a day, the merchants in Guangzhou suffered heavy losses, and the imperial court had to lose tens of thousands of taels of taxes.

Everyone knew that something serious must have happened, but no one knew what it was. Even if they asked Wu Shigao to inquire, the latter would not be able to tell them.

"Hurry up, be quick with your hands and feet."

At each pier, several thousand households were yelling loudly, and under the yelling, groups of soldiers in armor were pushing huge wooden boxes onto the ship in an orderly manner.

These wooden boxes are all covered by rain cloth, and it can only be seen from the boxy appearance that this is a box. As for the objects in the box, it is unknown.

Under the urging of the thousands of households, the sea ships were quickly filled with these strange huge wooden boxes and hundreds of soldiers. When the people and goods were all together, the sea ships would display semaphore and leave the port.

In this way, after nearly four hours, nearly a hundred sea-going ships were considered to have all left, and the nearly ten thousand soldiers who had originally guarded the periphery of Guangzhou Port had withdrawn their vigilance and began to leave in an orderly manner.

The Guangzhou Port Authority took over here again and began to gradually and orderly restore the shipping of Guangzhou Port.

It was not until this time that Chen Jiading, including the major families in Guangzhou, was able to contact the Guangzhou Port Authority and learn about it.

"Send something, send what?"

Chen Jiading looked in the direction of the port in disbelief, and was amazed by what he learned: "What is it that is being transported that can make the imperial court block Guangzhou Port at all."

To put it bluntly, the merchants in Guangzhou didn’t know about it, and even Song Sheng, who was far away in India, didn’t know about it either. He only knew that the military order ordered him to send troops to Calcutta to pick up a sea fleet.

As the commander-in-chief, of course Song Sheng could not get out of the Chinese army, but he still sent his lieutenant general Duan Jie to replace him and lead the [-] elite Chinese army to Calcutta.

"I'm Song Shuai's lieutenant general, Duan Jie. I'm here, but." Duan Jie took out the warrant to look at it, then looked up at the handsome man in front of him and asked, "But the artillery commander Zhu Yu?"

"It's me, General Duan who worked hard to welcome you personally."

Zhu Yu strode towards Duan Jie, took out his appointment documents from his bosom, including the transfer order files, and gave them to the latter, and said with a smile: "I'm new here, I hope General Duan will help the younger general in the future."

Duan Jie took a look, and muttered: "Zhu Yu, born in Hongwu in 21 years, entered the first phase of the Artillery Command Academy in the first year of Xihe, made four meritorious deeds during school, graduated with full marks in command, and was ordered to form an army in Kyushu in four years. The Artillery Guard also served as the commander, and in April of the [-]th year of Kyushu, he was ordered to go to India and listen to Song Sheng, the commander-in-chief of the expedition to India."

After reading Zhu Yu's transfer order file, Duan Jie looked up at the former in disbelief, and asked in surprise.

"How did you achieve meritorious service when you were in school?"

"General Duan doesn't know. Our Artillery Academy has two drills every year. I'm lucky that the cannonballs are more accurate than others. That's why we won No. 1 in all four drills in two years. That's why we have made four meritorious service."

Duan Jie let out a cry of enlightenment, but curled his lips disapprovingly in his heart.

It's so damn easy to accomplish this feat.

It's too easy to become a general after leaving school.

After muttering, Duan Jie looked at the soldiers behind Zhu Yu who were busy unloading wooden boxes from the boat, and asked curiously.

"These boxes are the so-called guns?"

"Yes, there are 02 Type 05 guns and 02 Type 05 guns." Zhu Yu nodded and introduced: "The caliber of the Type 16 gun is [-] inches, and the caliber of the Type [-] gun is [-] inches. A gun, the only difference being that the latter has a larger caliber, a longer range and more kinetic energy."

Duan Jie felt as if he was listening to heaven, he waved his hands repeatedly and said, "I don't understand what you said, so I just want to know if there is any difference between this thing and the cannon in my impression."

Having been a soldier for half his life, it's not that Duan Jie has never been exposed to cannons. Whether it's the Hongwu Year or the Yongle Year, there are such things in the army.

After thinking for a while, Zhu Yu shook his head: "There is no difference."

"No difference?" Duan Jie was a little disappointed when he heard Zhu Yu's voice again: "It's just that it won't explode."

Duan Jie was shocked for a moment, looked at Zhu Yu in disbelief and re-confirmed: "What did you say, this cannon won't explode?"

"No." Zhu Yu said naturally and with certainty: "At present, we have tried 31 rounds at most. Except for the two times in the middle that overheated and needed to be cooled, there are very few incidents of bombing. Among a thousand cannons, the remaining The chance rate is about three per thousand."

Duan Jie swallowed his saliva: "How far can you hit?"

"For type 02, it is two hundred feet, and for type 05, it is 260 feet."

Zhu Yu introduced: "No matter how far it is, it is not impossible, but the power will be affected, so try not to exceed the specified range."

Duan Jie only felt his brows and eyes twitch wildly.

With this thing, does the army still need crossbowmen and catapults?

Soon, Duan Jie became interested again, grabbed Zhu Yu's shoulders and said with a smile: "Brother Zhu, you see, didn't you just say that you were good at shooting during the two years you were in school? In this way, can you give me a hand?" I'll show my hands."

How could Zhu Yu not understand what Duan Jie meant, that he wanted to test both guns and people, so he nodded with a smile.

"It just so happens that I haven't touched a cannon for a long time. Since General Duan wants to give advice, let Zhu make a fool of himself."

Immediately under the preparation of several artillerymen, Zhu Yu selected the target of the artillery 230 feet away: a house made entirely of bluestone.

Calibration, wind direction, high and low accuracy.

After Zhu Yu was sure, he ordered the fire to be lit.

With a loud bang, Duan Jie quickly raised the binoculars hanging on his chest, and was immediately dumbfounded.

Where is there any house? What is left is only ruins!
So fucking accurate and fierce!
(End of this chapter)