Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 136 Heading north, start!
The successful use of electricity has brought Lijia Town's productivity to a new level.

Technologies that urgently require electricity, such as electrolysis, electric furnaces, electric welding, electric lights, broadcasting, batteries, heating, agriculture, etc., can be put on the agenda.

Of course, the current power generation capacity of Lijia Town is definitely not enough.

For the huge "power-eating beast" of industry, the power generation of Lijia Town is equivalent to an appetizer, not even a main course.

The conditions required for power generation, such as water power, wind power, thermal power, and manpower, are easy to say.

Power generation materials such as wires and magnets are somewhat expensive.

The former generally uses copper, but aluminum and silver can also be used. However, whether in ancient times or modern times, copper is relatively expensive, and aluminum and silver are even more expensive.

In the late Ming Dynasty, the price of a pound of copper was two or three times that of iron. Li Mu estimated based on the scale of power generation envisioned by the players that the amount of copper wire required would be a huge amount.

Only then did Li Mu deeply realize that "industrialization" was a "gold-consuming den" and that investing a large amount of money into a bottomless pit would not yield any benefits in the short term.

The textbooks say that the prelude to industrialization is the accumulation of primitive capital. He didn't quite understand it in the past, but now he has a deep understanding of it.

How can a small country or state without funds survive?
It turns out that true knowledge can only be gained through practice. Without profound experience, knowledge is just a string of words that goes in one ear and out the other.

The main power at the moment is still "steam power". Electricity is used to develop some special technologies, such as the development of "high-pressure steam engines" using electric welding and riveting. The efficiency of previous ordinary steam engines was obviously insufficient.

If the high-pressure steam engine is successfully developed and a large amount of funds are accumulated to lay railways, trains driven by high-pressure steam engines will be able to start running.

When Li Mu thought of the train running at a speed of dozens of miles per hour, he felt so excited that he wanted to dance to express his joy.

Therefore, Li Mu needed to earn more funds to continue developing industry.

Li Mu was very pleased with the outstanding performance of the power team. With a wave of his hand, he gave everyone a battle-level reward.

The power team players who received the reward cheered, and the other team players were envious. They all took out their trump cards and asked Li Mu for the reward.

The gun crew brought out fifty muzzle-loading flintlock rifles, equipped with Minié bullets. Their effective range was approximately three hundred meters. Combined with the sights on the back of the rifles, they could accurately fire at enemies within three hundred meters.

The original smoothbore flintlock rifle was given internal rifling, and the shape of the projectile was improved to fit the rifling.

Countless "craftsman groups" repeatedly produced more than a hundred guns, and finally mastered the technical tricks after repeated failures, and successfully produced a batch of guns with smaller errors.

According to historical experience, a skilled team of three can produce a muzzle-loading, rifled flintlock rifle in more than a month, while an unskilled team may need two and a half months to produce one.

A skilled team could produce ten guns a year. One hundred teams could produce a thousand. The European powers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries all used large-scale workshops to mass-produce muskets, with an annual production capacity of hundreds of thousands.

The "Guns and Cannons Team" said they are still accumulating processing experience, and the number of craftsmen trained by the old and the new is also steadily increasing.

A more powerful version of the rifled percussion cap firearm is still under development, and in the future there will definitely be a percussion cap firearm that can shoot at a range of 400 meters.

Of course, for now, smoothbore and rifled flintlock rifles are sufficient.

The chemistry team also stepped forward to contribute a batch of high explosives and bottles of sulfuric acid.

Li Mu naturally accepted sulfuric acid, a useful substance.

As for high explosives, their transportation safety is relatively easy to guarantee, as mixing them with wood pulp can reduce the danger.

However, considering that the "chemical group" has an extremely low output of explosives, which is gone after one use, it is not as good as the accumulated damage caused by black powder which can be made from locally available materials.

It would be better to make high explosives into aerial bombs and drop them from hot air balloons or airships for bombing.

There were also some miscellaneous weapons, lime bombs, white phosphorus bombs, flamethrower tanks, Hale rockets...

Li Mu accepted all of them and gave corresponding rewards to the providers.

At this time, he personally led his troops north, including one thousand new players, three hundred players who died in the front line and were resurrected, and four thousand direct infantry and cavalry, a total of more than five thousand people.

It was equipped with six field guns, four iron cannons and two bronze cannons.

The twenty players with the best bird-gun shooting skills and thirty combat soldiers were selected, armed with flintlock rifles, and formed into a fifty-man hunting team, specializing in sniping enemy officers.

This time the main force will be operating across a distance of thousands of miles, and one must be aware that the supply lines are too long.

Li Mu was not worried about food and grass—

The immediate superior of this operation was Lu Xiangsheng, and the battlefield was close to the Grand Canal, and the grain transported every year passed through the river.

At worst, his fleet could still transport food and fodder back and forth from his hometown. The finances of Runing Prefecture secretly provided him with financial support, so it was no problem for him to supply thousands of infantry and cavalry to fight outside.

Moreover, logistical supply is a headache for civil servants. If they are not given enough food and fodder, they will "allow their soldiers to rob" on their own.

Anyway, he was a "vulgar" soldier, so it was reasonable for him to eat from a few rich people to supplement his food supplies.

Of course, Li Mu had three goals in personally leading his troops north this time.

Further weaken the hard power of the Tartars and earn some battle destiny rewards.

Secondly, through public channels, the "open army" and the "rebel army" were deployed to Shandong to lurk, making it easier to organize the poor people in Shandong. If necessary, the rebel army could imitate the beggar army and rise up in Shandong.

If Shandong could be successfully taken, it would be across the sea from Lushun, which was controlled by the Tartars.

A large number of guerrillas could easily land in southern Liaoning with just a few boats, attack Manchu farms, and kill slave owners. If the Eight Banners came to encircle and suppress them, the guerrillas could turn around and hide in the mountains of southern Liaoning, or escape by boat to the small islands around southern Liaoning.

When the enemy comes, we retreat; when the enemy retreats, we harass, thus continuously bleeding the Jiannu.

Third, some merchants, shopkeepers, and apprentices were brought along with the army.

Placing a trading team in every other important city will not only help Li Mu earn industrial and agricultural funds, but also cooperate with lurking players to build a large intelligence network. At the same time, it will also weaken the Lin family's business influence to prevent it from becoming too powerful.

The business teams that can serve as both businessmen and spies are distinguished by the combinations of "gold, wood, water, fire, and earth" and "Jia, Yi, Bing, and Ding". For example, the group that followed the army north were the five teams of Gold Armor, Wood Armor, Water Armor, Fire Armor, and Earth Armor.

It is expected to be deployed in Luzhou, Nanjing, Huai'an, Xuzhou and Jining.

……

After Li Mu saw the electric light, the mobilization order to march north to attack the Qing Dynasty was spread throughout the sphere of influence under his actual control through the commands of civil and military players.

For the first time, the small war machine he had built with his own hands was running at full speed for the purpose of long-range combat.

Although this machine is a mixture of a large number of feudal remnants and the budding colors of capitalism, its bureaucratic system extending from top to bottom is very useful.

Li Mu pressed the switch of the large war machine, and the metal gears bit the steel teeth tightly and ran. The war machine seemed to spew out a whistling and sharp steam roar. Everyone was a screw and part of this giant machine.

All resources are poured into the bottomless pit of "war" like pure white milk and clear honey.

The propaganda department also began to vigorously promote it. The content of newspapers these days is almost all about war and history. The newspapers say—

The continuous wars in the north had made life miserable for the people. The powerful bureaucrats only knew how to indulge in wine and sex, but they could not see the sorrow of the common people who were separated from their wives and children, and whose families were broken up. They could not hear the cries of orphans whose parents were abducted by the Qing army, and they could not feel the hunger and cold of the poor people.

The overwhelmed people rose up in rebellion many times, but the bureaucrats, who were good at suppressing domestic affairs but not at foreign wars, were weak and incompetent. They only knew how to increase taxes again and again, forcing more honest people to rebel, but they did not know how to share the burden with the rich.

Now General Li, who has defeated 100,000 "tiger bandits", is like a clear stream in the mud. Although he knows that the Tartars are brutal and powerful, he still mobilizes his troops to march north to drive out the Jiannu who have invaded the interior.

Even General Li personally joined the battle, how could all the soldiers of the Black Flag Battalion not follow suit!
All the officers and soldiers of the Black Flag Battalion went north to serve the king, not only to win military merit, but also to rescue innocent civilians from danger and win back peace and stability for the people in the north.

The material needs of promotion and wealth were mixed with the righteousness of saving the people, and the morale of thousands of soldiers suddenly rose.

This time, the baggage and equipment were separated from the infantry and cavalry teams. The river boats had limited carrying capacity and could not carry too many things, so all the baggage and equipment were placed on the river boats and traveled by water, leaving only a few hundred people to guard the boats.

The extra several thousand infantry and cavalry traveled overland to the Linqing area, an estimated distance of one thousand miles.

Li Mu required that the lightly armed infantry and cavalry should march 120 li per day, with an average of 100 li per day, and the minimum daily march not to be less than 80 li.

This was Qi Jiguang's marching requirement for his soldiers, but most of the Ming army could not meet this standard.

Li Mu believed that his soldiers, who had trained intensively for months and had marched long distances, could do it. If they could hire extra boats along the way, they would take a boat for part of the journey.

Li Mu placed the permanent resurrection point on the river bank west of the mall. It is just a temporary camp at the moment, and it will be the player's official main base in the future.

Li Mu opened a separate thread on the game forum for players to discuss the design of the main base building layout and cultural style.

Whether it is ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign culture, science fiction and fantasy style, or all of them, it is left to the players to decide.

When the troops were assembled, Li Mu got up and dressed, with his little follower Yang Wenpan assisting him.

This was the ninth time she had put armor on Li Mu. She remembered every detail and scene of each time.

The first time was when he led the potato soldiers to attack the bandits in Heifengzhai, and the most recent time was when he led his troops south to resist the bandits.

She looked at the handsome young man wearing the mountain-patterned armor that she had helped him put on, and the breastplate on his chest that she often cleaned and maintained.

She followed him to the town gate and watched him mount his horse and give a morale-boosting speech in front of the potato soldiers and war soldiers.

Yang Wenpan didn't understand the content, nor did she understand why he made such a passionate speech, but she knew one thing: the man on the horse was the great benefactor of everyone in Yangjia Village.

If it weren't for this man, after the food in Yangjia Village was taken away, everyone would have repeated the tragedy of fleeing famine and eventually starved to death.

She would also fall like mud on a road, to be eaten by wild dogs or hungry people...

Yang Wenpan never listened to any great principles, or any kings or generals appointed by heaven, nor did he believe in any gods or Buddhas.

If gods and Buddhas existed, how could they allow her relatives and friends to starve to death?
Whether now or in the future, she only trusts Li Mu.

It was he who gave her a second life.

Let her learn to write more Chinese characters, understand the secrets of "science", know what it feels like to have a full meal, and what warmth is in the cold winter.

Even if one day the imperial army swarmed in to strangle Mr. Li, even if he was a great master who would only fly into the fairyland to enjoy happiness after death, she would stand in front of him without hesitation and be willing to block the arrows for him.

He is everything to her, her material foundation and spiritual sustenance.

He is everything to her!
Watching Li Mu riding away on horseback, Wen Pan prayed in his heart.

She hoped that Mr. Li would live well and stay with her, his little follower, in the mortal world for a little longer.

(End of this chapter)