national surname chiming

Chapter 442
Since Descartes converted to Daming, in just a few months, he did create some gadgets for Daming.

It can be said that the move of introducing foreign catfish and boosting scientific research competition with a lot of money has an immediate effect.

Other things are still relatively slow to take effect, and the one that can be directly put into actual combat is Descartes. After several months of scientific research at the Purple Mountain Observatory and Meteorological Observatory, Descartes helped Zhu Shuren propose an improvement plan for the telescope, which improved all aspects. Some performances also helped Daming make some adjustments in the miniaturization and improvement of the telescope.

By chance, perhaps it was because of the knowledge that Daming might need to start another war with the nomadic barbarians in the north at any time to regain some of the fallen homeland, and the military pressure was relatively high.In addition, Descartes accidentally discovered that Ming had an advanced rifled precision sniper rifle that was not even available in Europe.

Then Descartes used his ingenuity, made some adjustments to his improved latest miniaturized telescope, and made the world's first rifle scope.

Descartes also had some discussions on ballistics research with Daming's colleagues.

In this era, Western artillery ballistics is still very primitive. As for musketeers, there is no ballistics at all, and there is no firearm calibration before actual combat aiming.

On the other hand, Daming already had the foundation of early artillery ballistics, which greatly shocked Descartes.

After the shock, Descartes used his mathematical genius to learn from each other's strengths and brainstorm with Ming scholars and craftsmen.I thought of drawing the range-finding line on the scope, and calculated how much the muzzle angle of the gun needs to be raised according to different shooting ranges.

In addition, under mutual inspiration, the two sides also sorted out a set of operating specifications on how to pre-calibrate rifled rifles before going to the battlefield, and made repeated tests.

These small improvements are of no help to the vast majority of Ming Dynasty riflemen who are still using "Made in Wuchang" muskets, and musketmen are not considered a precision strike force.

However, the increase in the combat power of Ming's artillery and rifled snipers was immediate. When Ming and the Puppet Qing fought again, it would undoubtedly increase the odds of winning.

……

Moreover, Descartes and Jansen-Tasman did not all vote for Ming alone.When Descartes was in the Netherlands, he was considered a top scholar, and there were many apprentices under him.Jansen-Tasman has been a geographical explorer for many years and has some capable subordinates.

This time to vote, they all brought a team, and more or less mastered some supporting skills. After exchanging ideas and exchanging ideas with the craftsmen and scholars of the Ming Dynasty, they can do more things.

In just a few months, under the leadership of Song Yingxing, the Daming Academy of Sciences has implemented this sorting work.

After sorting out, it was found that the Dutch team can help Daming improve quickly and make up for shortcomings in at least the following aspects.

The first is shipbuilding technology.

It's not that the enlarged versions of Fuchuan and Shachuan that Daming originally used were not easy to use.Daming is still very good in every subdivision of shipbuilding, such as watertight compartments.

Fuchuan and Sandchuan are indeed the most suitable ship types for China's coastal waters.

But I have to admit that many types of ships in the West do have an advantage in the ocean exploration trade. The Dutch have been sea coachmen for more than half a century, and they are still the kind that suppressed the original overlord Spain. its accumulation.

This time, the establishment system attracted a group of Dutch technology, shipbuilding, and exploration talents, which at least enriched Daming's shipbuilding capabilities and unlocked many new ship types.

From then on, Ming Dynasty was also able to slowly explore how to build "three-layer gun-deck Galen warship" and "Manila-type ocean-going Galen merchant ship".

Moreover, Zhu Shuren is also very concerned about shipbuilding and navigation. During this period, he visited and instructed the teams of Descartes and Jansen-Tasman many times.

Although he doesn't know exactly how to build a ship, he knows the general trend of historical development, and he has played countless generations of games similar to "The Age of Discovery" before traveling.Therefore, Zhu Shuren is of course well aware of the question of "what kind of ship type should be more advantageous in history after the Galen sailing ship is eliminated".

Therefore, at an appropriate time, he put forward the following views:

Compared with the previous generation of Karak/Caravel ships, the biggest advantage of the Galen ship is that it cancels the towering forecastle, lowers the center of gravity and reduces resistance, improves seaworthiness, increases displacement utilization and effective Cargo capacity - However, this improvement is not complete enough.

Because the Galen ship still retains a tall poop in order to deal with a certain degree of melee combat, prevent boarding gangs, and face-to-face battles within the range of muskets.This thing is still disadvantageous to the center of gravity, seaworthiness, and tonnage utilization.

This design had to be retained before, but the range of the cannon was not far enough. During the battle, the warships of the two sides often approached to within a hundred steps to shoot at each other, and even jumped on board.

There is a tall stern building, at least it can make it as difficult for the other side to attack the city when the muskets shoot each other.It is even more difficult to attack the upper poop from the deck when hacking on board.

However, now that artillery technology has improved every few years, Daming's metallurgy and cannon casting technology have already made Descartes terrified after watching the live ammunition shooting experiment.

With this new cannon, the possibility of close-range hand-to-hand combat and even musket shooting in the future has infinitely approached zero, so there is no need for the cumbersome poop to exist!Make it as flat as possible!
Ever since, after the Dutch combined the original ready-made drawings with the new needs suggested by Zhu Shuren, 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 Level Between Wars (1812).

After all, the cannons made by Zhu Shuren have reached the technological content at the end of the 18th century, so there is no reason why the boats he built cannot match!

With sail battleships, ocean-going light ships can also move closer to the sail frigates of the 18th century.In the end, there are only clipper ships used for ocean exploration and heavy-duty trade, which will take a little more work,
But Zhu Shuren reckoned that Descartes and the Tasman team could figure it out in five to ten years. Anyway, there was no need to worry about it. It was just a free move for the long-term stability of the Ming Dynasty. Right now, the Tartars don’t need ocean-going navy.

Even the Fuchuan sailors are not needed, only the Shen family's own Shachuan sailors are needed, and it is enough to rule the Yellow Sea.

The shipbuilding technology of the Dutch is equivalent to being digested and absorbed by Zhu Shuren's team directly connected to the team, and then integrated and upgraded.

……

In addition to shipbuilding, there are only one or two other technologies brought by the Dutch that are worthy of immediate reference by Ming.

One is the western-style traffic road infrastructure construction method, and the other is the construction technology of the upgraded version of the bastion star castle.

After all, Europeans are somewhat unique in the field of infrastructure.In terms of road construction, the ancient Chinese had the Qin Zhidao, but the road and bridge projects in the later dynasties still developed more naturally.Although in the west, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the technology of Roman roads and bridges also fell behind, but in the late period of the Age of Discovery, it gradually surpassed the Ming Dynasty, which allowed natural development.

Therefore, it is also beneficial to learn a little engineering technology of building bridges and roads from Europeans. It is also beneficial to learn from each other. As for how to build a house, there is no need to learn too much. Partial reference.

As for the buildings of military fortresses, after all, the Netherlands is the birthplace of the bastion fortress, and there is still some research on the new offensive and defensive tactics after the popularization of heavy artillery.

In addition, the Europeans had just finished the 30-year war. During the 30-year war, on the land of Defaio, I don’t know how many bastions they built and how many high-density siege battles they fought. The confrontation intensity of the artillery defense is constantly increasing.

In contrast, Daming here can only rely on Zhu Shuren's foresight, although he has also built some fortified cities and fortresses.

But because the enemy's offensive ability is too weak, there is no one who can fight against Pseudo-Qing and Li Zicheng on the opposite side.Since the 15th year of Chongzhen, in the eight years to now, although there are still many provincial-level fortified cities in the Ming Dynasty that have been breached, none of them have been directly guarded by Zhu Shuren's troops.Those who fell were the fault of the old Ming army commanded by others. They were too incapable of fighting.

All the core cities defended by Zhu Shuren's direct line Huguang Army and the reorganized Xin Ming Army have so far been breached to zero.

The enemy is too incapable of fighting, and the Ming army can't gradually upgrade and summarize the experience of defending the city in the confrontation. In this case, it is better to directly borrow the design ideas and optimization ideas that the Europeans have exchanged for countless blood in the 30-year war. Direct hypothetical deduction, digestion and absorption.

To make a digression, perhaps it was Zhu Shuren's move to poach French scientist Descartes and bring a bunch of his disciples, which had a profound impact on the attraction of French, Dutch scientific and military engineering talents.

Because the legend of Descartes doing well in Ming Dynasty will eventually play a demonstration effect of "a thousand gold city bones" and "King Yanzhao built a golden platform", so that a group of people can't do well in Fahe but have real talents and strange learning Talented people with wonderful ideas are just around the corner.

In the next ten years, Zhu Shuren let the ocean-going businessmen trained by Yang Sen Tasman run the ocean routes of France and the Netherlands several times, basically once every three years, and three times in ten years, each time helping Zhu Shuren bring back dozens of Even hundreds of useful talent teams.

In the third year after Descartes came to China, and when the Janssen-Tasman fleet brought talents to China for the second time, Zhu Shuren discovered a very talented Frenchman in his early 20s among the talents he brought back. The technical officer of the siege artillery, named Vauban - there is no doubt that he is the French Vauban Marshal who later invented the Vauban siege method in history.

In history, Vauban should have continued to help Prince Condé conquer the city and seize territory in the French civil war that began in 30 after the end of the Thirty Years War. Traveling across the oceans to invest in the Ming Dynasty.

Vauban in history built 33 new star castles in his lifetime, which no one else could capture.And he himself has captured 53 old-fashioned bastions of the enemy in his life, and he can be called the number one attacking/defending master in Europe in the bastion era. The application of heavy artillery to attacking and defending cities is definitely No. 1 in the world.

Such a master of military engineering was also recruited because of Zhu Shuren's thirst for talents. It is estimated that in the 70-year ruling career of the "Sun King" Louis XIV in the future, the rise of the French will also be discounted to a certain extent. Yes, it's the butterfly effect.

……

Scopes and other ballistics and sighting technologies have advanced rapidly, as have shipbuilding, fortification, and road construction technologies. The military potential of Ming Dynasty has indeed achieved considerable reinforcement in the first three quarters of the fifth year of Longwu.

Even those rotten scholars who didn’t support Zhu Shuren’s establishment of the Academy of Sciences at the beginning, and didn’t support him in building so many research institutes, zoological and botanical gardens, museums, observatories, meteorological stations outside Nanjing City, etc., who feel that it is a waste of money and money, have to admit that Prince E is really far-sighted, strategizing, and thinking People dare not think, but they all have quick results and can immediately feed back the construction of the world.

Up and down, they are also full of confidence in the follow-up war with the Qing army, and the troops are full of fighting spirit.

The time finally entered September of the fifth year of Longwu.

It is the harvest season of the year again, and all provinces have devoted their main internal energy to ensuring the autumn harvest.

It seems that because the Little Ice Age is gradually going away, this year's harvest has generally rebounded slightly compared to the previous year.

Not only the southern provinces can be absolutely self-sufficient, but also ensure that there is still surplus food that can be collected as military rations, or that the government can fund the purchase of reserves.

Even Henan and Shaanxi, which had just been liberated for a year or two respectively, became self-sufficient for the first time.

Zhu Shuren had invited Emperor Longwu Zhu Changhao before, and in the past two years, the newly recovered Henan and Shaanxi have been exempted from tax.

The main reason is that in the past four years, Daming was used to relying solely on the fiscal revenues of the southern provinces to support the imperial court. In addition, the capital city is close to Nanjing, which is the core area of ​​rich and rich areas. .

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 buy it at the expense of the government and store it locally as future military food for the Northern Expedition. Why bother to centralize and transport it around the capital?This is not a waste of transport capacity, it will only increase the loss on the way!

Therefore, from the fourth year to the sixth year of Longwu, the imperial court can even extend the grace period in the future. The requirement for Shaanxi and Henan is to support themselves. There is no need to hand over a single grain of grain to the imperial court, and there is no need to pay the head tax of money. Just stop asking the court for food relief.

There is really enough food in the local area and more food, the imperial court spent money to buy your food, it is not for nothing.After being bought, it was used as military rations for troops stationed on the frontier of Henan and Shaanxi, reducing the amount of military rations dispatched from the rear.

Moreover, during the de facto truce between the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Zhu Shuren also reduced the number of troops stationed on the frontier, and did not send hundreds of thousands of Ming army main force to Henan, southern Shandong, and northern Jiangsu, because he knew that the Qing army did not have the strength to counterattack right now. , tear up the peace.

Only tens of thousands of full-time standing troops were stationed on the front line in case of emergencies. The rest of the full-time standing troops stayed in Huainan or even Jiangnan, eating directly in the grain-producing areas, which also saved a lot of wastage in transporting army food to the northern frontier.

The army remaining in Henan, except for a few out-of-production elite soldiers, are all military garrisons who need to farm during busy farming seasons. They grow and feed themselves, and they are also food producers. It's a burden.

In contrast, during this period of truce, the Qing army knew that it was already a weaker side, and they did not dare to reopen the war for the time being, so they had to station heavy troops along the north bank of the Yellow River and the mountainous area of ​​Mount Tai. The proportion is still high,
Therefore, during the armistice period, the speed of the Qing army's military rations was not even much slower than that during the war.If the stalemate continues, even if there is no war, the army rations will kill Hauge within a few years!

The Han people under Hauge's rule are naturally under more and more pressure, and the backlog of anger is getting worse and worse, and they are already like a powder keg that will explode at one point.

In such an environment, the chain of events finally happened.

On the seventeenth day of September in the fifth year of Longwu, Jiang Yu, the commander-in-chief of Datong, finally pulled the flag officially after holding back for a long time. He contacted several other Han generals in the south of Shanxi, and together with the north-central area of ​​Shanxi directly under his own jurisdiction, he pulled the flag. Changing flags, officially declaring to leave the Qing Dynasty and join the Ming Dynasty!

Jiang Guan chose this point of time, of course, after careful consideration.

As mentioned earlier, in fact, at the end of July and the beginning of August, he was already ready to move because of Haug's series of oppression, internal cleaning, and the transfer of the Shanxi Manchu Qing army to Hebei to work.

But at that time, Jiang Yu didn't dare to do it directly. He still prepared for so long, and held back for an extra month and a half. The purpose was to wait for the autumn harvest and the initial storage of autumn grain.

Shanxi is too poor!There are many mountainous areas and the countryside is barren. In the year when the Little Ice Age has just turned to recovery, it is still difficult to be self-sufficient in terms of food.

If the flag is raised at the end of July and early August, once Haoge quickly counterattacks and the relatively rich Fenshui River Valley and Yangquan River Valley in the areas controlled by Jiang Tuan are occupied by the Qing army, forcing Jiang Tuan to defend the city, then He may soon be starved to death.

In the middle of September, the harvested autumn grain was finally seized by Jiang Yushi in his military grain warehouse. He finally gained courage and felt that he could survive until Daming'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 Daming again, at least get a treatment similar to Wu Sangui's, and completely clean up his past crimes.

Of course, there are still military risks and difficulties. The main reason is that Jiang Yu, as the commander-in-chief of Datong, can control and contact the rebellion, and at most it is the north-central part of Shanxi.

However, in the Yuncheng Basin, Zhongtiao mountainous area, and even the Hanoi area in southern Shanxi, Jiang Tuan could not instigate rebellion at all.

Once Jiang Guan raised the flag, there was still Huaiqing Mansion in Henan Province, which is still controlled by the Qing army and located north of the Yellow River, between his jurisdiction and the Henan jurisdiction of Daming.Plus Pingyang Prefecture, Luzhou Prefecture, and Zezhou Prefecture in the south of Shanxi.

Therefore, after Jiang Guan made his move, on the one hand, he had to guard the dangerous passes of the Taihang Mountains to prevent the Hebei Qing army from attacking in the east; If the three prefectures of Shanxi and Shanxi are occupied, and he can be considered completely safe if he can connect with the Ming court by land.

Of course, before he sent troops, he must also inform Daming, imploring Daming to stay in Luoyang and Kaifeng's troops to go north, flank him from north to south, and knock down the four mansions controlled by the Qing army. You can't just rely on him.

(End of this chapter)