The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 277: Thunder but no rain
Wanli issued an order to the nine border areas to prepare for the expedition against the northern barbarians.

As a result, he actually went to the summer resort to escape the summer heat.

Moreover, he has not yet secretly gathered troops for a surprise attack.

There was no sign of the soldiers of the Beijing camp gathering.

What does he want to do?

This guy, he was actually playing with Zhou Danquan making bricks on the edge of the North Arena!

Qi Jiguang, Dong Yikui and Ma Gui were all stunned.

When they hurried over after receiving the imperial edict, Wanli did not even call them to the hall for discussion.

Early in the morning at about noon, Wanli led them on horseback and headed straight to the hillside west of Beijiaochang.

They were really confused.

This seems to be a place where bricks are fired. Not far away, a piece of grass has been lifted up, and a group of craftsmen are digging soil to make bricks there.

There are also rows of bricks neatly stacked at the foot of the hill, some of which are fired and some are air-dried but not yet fired.

Zhou Danquan brought hundreds of craftsmen to line up there to welcome them.

What is this for?

After Wanli dismounted, he waved his hand and said, "Duke Zhou, open the door."

Open the door?
Where is this door?
Zhou Danquan waved his hand, and several craftsmen immediately took shovels and carefully shoveled the hillside. They shoveled off a circle of dry clay, and a city gate-shaped door was revealed.

Immediately afterwards, several craftsmen worked together to grab a large iron ring and pull it outwards, and a thick earthen door was opened.

Seeing this, Wanli frowned slightly and said, "This is too troublesome. Let the father-in-law make a batch of iron plates like this to serve as doors."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Danquan nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

Seeing that they still didn't move, Wanli immediately waved his hand and said, "Duke Zhou, hurry up and pull out the bricks."

Zhou Danquan quickly waved his hand and asked the craftsmen to pull the iron carts in to move bricks.

After a while, cartloads of bricks were pulled out.

This furnace probably has tens of thousands of bricks.

When Wanli saw that they had finished moving, he waved his hand and said, "Come on, follow me inside to take a look."

Upon hearing this, Qi Jiguang, Dong Yikui and Ma Gui hurriedly followed him and Zhou Danquan inside.

It's still a little hot in here, and there's a weird smell.

In fact, there was nothing much inside. After entering a passage like a city gate, there was an arc-shaped cave with a pile of coal slag in the middle and a skylight as big as a washbasin on top. There was nothing else.

Wanli was quite excited and said, "Look, this kiln is reusable. Zhou Gong said it can be used for hundreds of years without any problems. Moreover, one kiln can produce tens of thousands of bricks, which is nearly ten times more than those earthen brick kilns."

This one.

They seemed to understand.

Qi Jiguang asked cautiously, "Your Majesty, do you want us to build this kind of kiln to make bricks?"

Wanli nodded repeatedly and said, "Yes, preparing bricks is the most time-consuming part of building a city fortress. I've seen that it takes a lot of manpower to build a brick kiln, and it takes several days. Moreover, the bricks produced by the kiln are not many.

This kind of kiln can produce one kiln of bricks a day, which is equivalent to the output of nearly ten earthen brick kilns. If you can build hundreds of such brick kilns, then you can easily send 10,000 people to produce bricks equivalent to thousands of earthen brick kilns in a day.

Think about it, if we can build cities and fortresses with bricks fired this way, won't we no longer have to worry about making bricks?"

This does make sense.

The problem is, building a city or fortress requires more than just bricks.

Qi Jiguang carefully reminded: "Your Majesty, we still need a lot of wood to build the city fortress."

This one is simple.

Wanli said without hesitation, "We can ask the navy to cut the wood. The wood for building a house doesn't need to be very large. There are plenty of trees in the deep mountains and old forests. Besides, there are many hydraulic saws in Nanjing. I will have them saw the wood and send it over. You don't have to worry about anything."

That's not a big problem.

As for nails, lime and other things, you won’t need much of them and they can be bought everywhere.

When the generals heard this, they all nodded slowly to show that they understood.

Seeing this, Wanli gave detailed instructions: "Each of you will take 100 craftsmen back with you, gather some men, and have them teach you how to dig kilns. In the first batch, each of you will dig 100 kilns.

"Note that the kiln must be dug close to the coal mine, and there must be plenty of clay nearby. Once the kiln is built, you can start burning bricks, burning hard and continuously."

This time, the remnants of the three major families in Puzhou and the Northern Tartars were all confused by him.

He had issued an order to prepare for the expedition against the Northern Tartars, but not only was there no movement from the Beijing camp, but there was also no movement from the nine major border towns. A few days of silence would have been normal, after all, an army of hundreds of thousands couldn't just leave at will, so ten days or half a month of silence would have been acceptable.

The problem is that a month has almost passed, and the various Ming armies have still not made any movement, and there is not even any sign of gathering. This is a bit abnormal.

This is just thunder without rain, which has caused great trouble to the various tribes of the Northern Tartars.

They were worried every day, fearing that the young Ming emperor would suddenly launch another surprise attack on them.

This kid plays like this every time.

When they all thought that the Ming army would not attack, the Ming army suddenly attacked.

So, what did Wanli do this month?

He actually brought soldiers and craftsmen from the Beijing camp to build a city wall at the south gate of the Mountain Resort!

This guy wears a dragon robe every day and points fingers, as if he is afraid that others can't see him.

Is he afraid that enemies will attack from the south?
This is a joke. The area over a hundred miles to the south is all military farms of the Beijing Army, and further on is the capital city. If someone can attack from the south, the Ming Dynasty will be destroyed.

Now the Beijing troops and the border troops are both strong in manpower and horses, and the navy is also growing rapidly. It is impossible for the enemy to attack from the direction of the capital.

So, he built the Acropolis at the south gate of the Summer Resort as if he was joking.

The remnants of the three major families in Puzhou and the northern barbarians even thought that this was a cover.

The little emperor is paralyzing them.

This guy might be secretly gathering troops somewhere and preparing for a surprise attack.

Even the figure in the dragon robe might be fake, and this guy might not even be in the Summer Resort.

In fact, this time he was not trying to paralyze the three major families of Puzhou and the Northern Tartars.

He really built the Acropolis in the Summer Palace.

These days, he would come here early in the morning around noon with Qi Jiguang, Yongnianbo Wang Wei, Huang Chengxuan and others to demonstrate there.

The person wearing the imperial robe and giving orders in the Acropolis is actually him, not a stand-in.

However, he was not directing the soldiers and craftsmen of the Beijing camp to work.

To be precise, this Acropolis was built according to the regulations of a thousand households for defense. Its area is not large, only about a mile in radius, and it can only accommodate more than a thousand households of border troops.

However, it has everything it should have, including the Qianhu Yamen, the parade ground, the granary, the stables, the courtyards where the garrison guards and their families live, etc., which are densely packed and arranged full.

The soldiers and craftsmen of the Beijing camp worked for nearly a month, and the Acropolis was almost completed.

Early in the morning at about noon, as the sun was rising, Wanli brought Qi Jiguang, Yongnianbo Wang Wei, Huang Chengxuan and others to the city gate tower of the South Gate to start a demonstration.

The New Acropolis was actually a template he created, and all future Acropolises outside the Great Wall were built according to this template.

He has a lot of room for improvement.

For example, the city gate tower is not the huge building like in the past, but a flat-roofed one, just like a beacon tower, with arrow emplacements all around it, but its area is larger than that of a beacon tower, and there is a platform on the top.

This is mainly for the purpose of speeding up the construction. The city gate towers in the past were just like palaces, and they were palaces built on the city walls, which were very troublesome to build.

Nowadays, this kind of city gate tower is not a building, but a platform with a circle of arrow slits. Moreover, the wood and bricks are ready-made. A hundred soldiers of the Beijing Camp can build such a platform-like city gate tower in a few days.

All the other buildings in the New Acropolis were built with the goal of speed. They were built as simply and quickly as possible. Even the city walls were only a few feet high, also for the sake of speed.

Wanli looked at the neatly arranged buildings below, then at the newly drawn blueprints, and then asked, "Xingshen, have you calculated the materials?"

Upon hearing this, Huang Chengxuan quickly bowed and handed over the account book in his hand, saying solemnly: "Your Majesty, everything is calculated."

This account book is very detailed. It records how many bricks, wood, lime, nails, etc. are needed to build the Acropolis. There is also a detailed list at the back. It records in detail what materials are needed for the city walls, city gate towers, Qianhu Yamen, courtyards where the garrisons live, etc., and they are all numbered.

Wanli took a closer look and nodded slightly, saying, "Well, that's right. You should calculate how many carriages are needed to transport all these materials to the frontier at once.

The carriage is the kind with a frame. It does not need a roof. The materials that cannot be exposed to rain are covered with oilcloth. Such a carriage is simple to build.

After all this has been calculated, you will compile it into a book called "Regulations for the Guarding of Thousand Households". Once you have compiled it, quickly give it to Er Zhang to do the typeset printing. Start by printing 100,000 copies."

Huang Chengxuan bowed repeatedly and said, "I understand."

Wanli then gave detailed instructions: "Father-in-law, you should also start preparing carriages and craftsmen.

No matter how many horse-drawn carriages are needed to transport the materials for building a thousand-household defense station, you must have at least ten sets. In addition to the 50,000 originally provided by the Beijing Xingdusi, the craftsmen who specialize in building the Acropolis will be given another 30,000, making a total of 80,000, which will be divided into 80 teams.

After Er Zhang prints the book, give each team a hundred copies. Then have them take a good look at the completed Acropolis, carefully observing how each building is constructed."

Upon hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei bowed repeatedly and said, "I understand."

(End of this chapter)