I, the Ming Dynasty, can still save me

Chapter 462 Jianlu’s Firearms

Nurhachi rested his hands on his back and paced back and forth in the hall, secretly thinking about Huang Taiji's words.

"You are right. I also know that there must be spies from the Ming Kingdom in the Kingdom of Jin. Like the defeat of Puhesuo in the middle of this year, the Ming army only sent troops after learning about Yue Tuo's movements. The news of this slaughter is also .

Nurhaci shook his head as he spoke, with an even more confused look on his face.

"But this time I was afraid that the news would be leaked, so I didn't reveal the news of Zaisai's departure to anyone else. I only told He Heli, Er Yidu and other five ministers, as well as you, Daishan, Mang Gurtai and others. Even Han Han Military commander Li Yongfang doesn’t even know. But even so, it’s of no use, the news has obviously been leaked.”

Seeing his father Khan's explanation, Huang Taiji sighed secretly.

Since the information about Zaisai was leaked in such a hidden way, it means that the status of the informant is by no means ordinary, and it would be very troublesome to investigate.

He took a slow breath, thought about the wording for a moment, then raised his hand and asked:

"Father Khan, we can't just let this matter go. We must investigate it strictly. Such secretive information about Dajin is actually leaked. If there is any war in the future, and the confidential information about our army is leaked, the consequences will be even more serious. "

"Well, I have already planned this matter in my mind. I have asked He Heli to investigate it before, but I never had any clues. Since you said so today, I want you to take over this matter. You must find this spy for me."

Huang Taiji also knew that this matter was important. After hearing this, he immediately knelt down and swore to Nurhaci:
"Father, please rest assured. I will get to the bottom of this matter and find this spy."

Seeing what Huang Taiji said, Nurhachi nodded slowly and said nothing more.

"Are Mang Gurtai and Daishan quarreling?"

Nurhachi frowned as he spoke. He really had a headache for his two sons.

After Mang Gurtai killed his mother, he deposed him at home, and Daishan's power became even stronger.

But he never expected that Daishan would become arrogant from then on. In the middle of the Battle of Puhe, he underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly. He was ambushed by the Ming army and Zhenghongqi suffered heavy losses.Daishan was also seriously injured and managed to save his life.

After this incident, Nurhachi also became more and more distant from Daishan, and he also valued Huang Taiji more and more in his heart.

But then the situation became more and more difficult. It was far from enough to just rely on Huang Tai Jishi, so he could only rely on Mang Gurtai and Daishan again.

Even so, the contradiction between the two has not been resolved, and the conflicts between their respective generals are increasing.

"After your reprimand last time, Father Khan, I also deliberately prevented them from meeting each other. Now there are a lot less conflicts."

"That's good. Now is the time to employ people. I just hope that they will work together to avoid any more troubles."

Nurhachi sighed slightly when he heard this. Even though he had created such a big foundation, he still had to worry about his son's discord.

As if his son's affairs had consumed his energy, he immediately waved his hand to Huang Taiji and asked him to step back.

Huang Taiji did not dare to say anything when he saw this, and bowed directly to retreat.
-
The winter in Jianlu was far colder than that in the Ming Dynasty. Huang Taiji came out of the main hall and felt the biting cold wind. He tried hard to pull the felt on his body so that he could feel a little warmth.

There were already servants holding horses waiting outside the palace gate. When Huang Taiji came out, he hurried up to greet him.

"I'm not going back to my hometown today, I'm going to Jiefan City."

Huang Taiji murmured to himself as he mounted his horse, then asked someone to lead the way, and rode out of the city.

The so-called "Jiefan" means the place where two rivers meet in Manchu. Its city is located about three miles east of Sarhu City and it was built on Tiebei Mountain.Before moving the capital to Sarhu, Nurhachi lived here for nearly two years.

After the capital was moved, this became the place where the Hou Jin army was stationed. Most of the Han army and the training Eight Banners soldiers gathered here for winter training.

Three miles was not far away, and the group of people left the city and headed east. They saw that although there were caravans walking on the road, it became increasingly desolate.

Many houses along the road were very empty, and the people living in them no longer knew where they had gone.

Regarding this current situation, Huang Taiji already felt that it was ordinary and nothing.

After passing two villages, he rushed to Jiefan City. There were more people on the road visible to the naked eye, and it was even busier than Saerhu City.

As soon as he arrived at Jiefan City, he saw a group of people who had already received the news and came out of the city and walked towards him. Huang Taiji gradually stopped when he saw this.

"Li Yongfang, the humble Han army commander, pays homage to Sibeile."

"Hahaha, Li Fufu, please get up quickly."

Ever since Nurhaci asked Huang Taiji and Li Yongfang to re-select people to train the Han army and make firearms, the relationship between the two has rapidly improved.

Li Yongfang took a fancy to Huang Taiji, who was not only valued by Nurhaci, but also trusted him and let him appoint all the officials of the Han army.

Huang Taiji, on the other hand, thought that the Han army to which Li Yongfang belonged could use firearms, which would definitely be a big help in the future.

The two helped each other and made the training of the Han army much faster.

"I came here today to see if there is any progress in firearm casting."

Among Nurhachi's many sons, Huang Taiji paid the most attention to firearms. It was his idea to train the Han army and manufacture firearms.Since the Han army started training, he has been coming to inspect, for no other reason than to see how the firearms, especially the artillery, were being cast.

"Don't worry, Sibeile. The blacksmith from Liaodong is indeed quite capable. My firearms casting is going very smoothly at the moment. I would like to invite Sibeile to come to the city for inspection."

Li Yongfang waved her hands as she spoke, and took Huang Taiji into the city for inspection.

As soon as everyone entered the city, they immediately felt that it was much livelier and noisier than outside the city. The sound of "ding-dong" knocking and the shouts of craftsmen continued to come from the east side of Jiefan City.

When everyone rushed to the east of the city, they saw dozens of craftsmen's shops operating there, as if the entire Daikin's craftsmen's shops were gathered here.Some shops are making cloth armor, while some shops can hear the continuous sound of forging iron, which indicates that they are forging weapons.

Huang Taiji turned a blind eye to all this, and walked directly past these shops and walked north. The more soldiers patrolled north, the more soldiers they patrolled, until they stopped at a firearms workshop surrounded by a high wall.

"Slow down, slowly inject the iron juice."

As soon as everyone entered the wall, the first thing they saw was a large open space with more than ten clay molds placed in it. A craftsman was directing people to pour the iron juice that had been prepared into the mold. "Master Beile, this is the most important step in making a cannon. First, cast the mold with clay, then pour the iron liquid into it. Finally, wait for the iron juice to cool, remove the clay mold, and polish the remaining barrel. Easy to use.”

Listening to Li Yongfang's introduction, Huang Taiji nodded repeatedly.

Just seeing that there was no cannon body within four feet, he couldn't help but sigh.

"It's a pity that this is only the Folang machine gun most commonly used by the Ming army. The gun body is too small and is slightly inferior to the Ming army's Kru cannon."

"Alas, what Mr. Baylor said is true. It's just that the Ming Dynasty strictly protected the casting skills of Krupp cannons. Only the Ordnance Bureau of the Ministry of Industry in Beijing is qualified and capable of manufacturing them.

However, after the Krupp cannon in Liaodong broke down, some craftsmen in the Liaodong Firearms Department knew how to repair it, but these people were strictly protected by Xiong Tingbi and could not be approached by ordinary people. "

Huang Taiji laughed when he heard Li Yongfang sighing, then immediately turned his head and said comfortingly:
"Don't worry, I have made great gold firearms from scratch now, not to mention that I can make them myself, which makes my father very happy. As for the Krupp cannon, let the Ming army give it to us first Make it, and when you defeat the Ming army later, just grab it and use it."

Listening to Huang Taiji's comfort, Li Yongfang gradually relaxed.This is one of the reasons why he likes Huang Taiji. After all, not all of Nurhachi's sons are extremely generous to the Han people.

After Huang Taiji finished speaking, he walked to the workshop. Folan cannons were being cast in the open space outside, while gun barrels were being cast inside the workshop.As soon as Huang Taiji entered, he saw more than 20 blacksmiths working hard on casting and polishing. They first heated the iron block red and melted it and hammered it into iron sheets.Then continue to burn it red, then wrap it on a large iron rod, beat it repeatedly, and then take it out and place it.

Repeat this several times, and the most important barrel of the musket is roughly made. Then the apprentice craftsman takes a file and polishes it repeatedly inside, making the inside of the barrel smooth, and a barrel is barely cast.

While watching the actions of these craftsmen, Huang Taiji continued to walk inside. There were already some gun barrels inside.

He picked up a gun barrel and looked from the muzzle to the inside of the barrel. He found that the inside was very smooth and there were very few holes. He was very happy, so he put down the barrel and said to everyone:

"These craftsmen are really well trained. They are much more skilled than when I came here last time. I will give you orders and give each of them 20 taels of silver."

After hearing this, everyone immediately knelt down to thank him, but Huang Taiji stopped them immediately with a wave of his hand.

"Li Erfu, you have worked hard during this period. These craftsmen are all talented people from my company. Food and wages must be good. You must not cut them off. You understand."

"Please rest assured, Belle, these people are all treasures, and I will never let them go hungry no matter what."

He felt relieved after listening to Li Yongfang's words.It's just that although he looked happy on the surface just now, his heart was still full of sorrow.There are only more than 20 craftsmen casting gun barrels, which is really too slow.

Even if these people have extremely high efficiency and yield, they only need more than 20 barrels a day. The Han army has 5000 people. Even if 2000 people have muskets, it will take at least three months.

The wish is beautiful, but the reality is always cruel. This workshop took six months to cast more than 1000 muskets, which was extremely inefficient.

"Let's go to the Han army camp."

This was the purpose of Huang Taiji's coming here. The Han army newly organized by him and Li Yongfang recruited about 5000 people at that time. Unlike the Eight Banners Army, it mainly relied on firearms.

After Li Yongfang heard that Huang Taiji had finished his inspection, he took him out of the workshop and headed to the south of the city.

As soon as you leave the south gate, you can see a large camp in the distance, and there are more and more pedestrians coming and going. Many people were still galloping on the road, but after seeing Huang Taiji's flag, they did not dare to mess up, and they all dismounted and knelt down to worship. After a while, we entered the military camp.

The soldiers of the Eight Banners usually farmed and trained in their spare time.Therefore, now the Eight Banners will send their own armored men here for training. In addition, with the successive defeats this year, the Jurchen elites have suffered many losses, so Nurhachi can only ask Huang Taiji to go north to attack the wild Jurchens to fill the number.

However, although these savage Jurchens are powerful in combat, they do not understand military formations and need more training.

Therefore, this military camp is like a large training ground. It is filled with savage Jurchens, former Eight Banners soldiers, Han army soldiers, etc. The whole camp is full of people, and the number of people is probably greater than that of Jiefan City.

But the more this happened, the more the Han army was squeezed out, and the Eight Banners soldiers looked down upon these Han soldiers at all.

It was believed that these Han people were incapable of fighting and could only do some defensive work on weekdays. Previously, the Khan wanted them to form their own army and put Li Yongfang's nephew in charge. At that time, there was some criticism.

In the end, the Han army and Daishan were ambushed and annihilated by the Ming army, which further confirmed this conclusion.

Now that they heard that the Han army was to be rebuilt, the soldiers of the Eight Banners were even more disdainful. The military camp was extremely indifferent to the Han officers and soldiers. It was common for them to cynicize, beat and scold them when they met.

However, the soldiers of the Han army were also troubled by this. They knew that being a soldier was just for a living, so they would endure whatever happened, so they did not cause any trouble.

Huang Taiji and others entered the military camp and headed east. After a while, they came to a large campus. The Han generals had been waiting here for a long time. When they saw Li Yongfang arriving with Huang Taiji, they hurriedly came forward to pay their respects.

Upon seeing this, Huang Taiji waved his hands quickly, not caring, and then looked at one of the generals, who was over thirty years old and had a thin face, and said with a smile:

"Chen Liangce, I am here today just to continue testing you."

When the man saw this, he immediately stood up and cupped his hands and said:

"Please don't worry, Lord Beile. After two months of training, the youngster's artillery skills have improved greatly. He will definitely show off his skills to Lord Beile today."

"Okay, then I'll take a good look today."

Upon hearing this, Huang Taiji was overjoyed. Li Yongfang also smiled and said:

"Chen Liangce is the artillery commander of our Han army. He has more than a thousand artillerymen under his command and more than [-] Folang machine guns. I heard that Lord Beile was coming some time ago, so he led his people to train day and night. I am also impressed by the results. What he sees in his eyes will never disappoint Lord Beile."

After he finished speaking, he pretended to scold Chen Liangce and said:

"Chen Liangce, Mr. Baylor came here specifically to see the results of our Han army's training today. You must train well, and you must not lose the face of our Han army."

Chen Liangce nodded immediately after hearing this and did not dare to neglect.

Huang Taiji was not in a hurry when he saw this. After a brief greeting, Li Yongfang began to ask everyone to show the combat power of the Han army.

Li Yongfang knew that the purpose of Huang Taiji's visit this time was to check and accept the training results of the Han army, so he did not dare to neglect and immediately waved his hand for Chen Liangce and others to start the demonstration.

　I failed the third subject, and will resume the second update tomorrow.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)