The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 58 Zhang Siwei loses his father

Nurhaci still jumped up.

It has always been a mystery why the Ming Dynasty court conferred the title of Dragon and Tiger General on him and gave him the imperial edict of Left Commander of Jianzhou Guard.

Empress Dowager Li was too soft-hearted and took pity on him, but that wasn't the point.

The key point is why Empress Dowager Li, who was in the deep palace, suddenly felt pity for a stranger who lived thousands of miles away.

Zhang Siwei, who was in power, must have played a key role in this. Otherwise, even if Empress Dowager Li issued an imperial decree, Nurhaci would not have been able to be conferred the title.

Historically, how Zhang Siwei came into contact with Nurhaci, and how the eight imperial merchants helped the Later Jin Dynasty overthrow the Ming Dynasty, all of these are shrouded in thick fog and there is no trace at all.

Now, all the Tatars of the Liaodong army were tied down on the western front, and Wanli was thousands of miles away and had no way to deal with Nurhaci.

Perhaps, this is God's will, the Ming Dynasty is destined to go through this disaster.

In fact, the chaos in the spring of the 11th year of Wanli was not only in Liaodong, but also in Yunnan and Guizhou on the southwestern border.

The former Burmese Xuanwei Office broke away from the control of the Ming Dynasty and established the Donghu Dynasty. The Donghu King led an army of more than 200,000 to attack Shunning Prefecture and Zhanda.

Mu Changzuo, Duke of Qian, also sent an urgent message, but because the distance was too far, the urgent message from Yunnan and Guizhou arrived later than the urgent message from Liaodong.

Wanli had no choice but to speed up the production of weapons and equipment, expand the Beijing camp, and prepare for the upcoming war.

Historically, it seems that the Wanli Dynasty only had three major expeditions, which is a misunderstanding.

In fact, the Wanli Dynasty launched four major campaigns, but the first three were victorious, while the final campaign against the Jiannu was a loss.

None of these four campaigns can be lost. If Ming Dynasty loses one, it will be doomed.

Therefore, military force is the key these days. I believe that if civil officials abandon their military skills, they are courting death. Warmongering is the way to go!
The Hongwu and Yongle dynasties are clear evidence of this.

After the Yongle Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty went further and further astray under the guidance of civil officials. The Battle of Tumu was actually foreseeable long ago. With the emphasis on civil officials over military affairs, could the Ming Dynasty still win a battle?

As a result, after the Battle of Tumu Fort, 300,000 to 400,000 soldiers of the Ming Dynasty’s Beijing Camp were killed or wounded. From then on, the Ming Dynasty’s military power was almost completely destroyed.

Fortunately, the Ming Dynasty's garrison system is still there, and the Beijing camp can still draw soldiers from garrisons across the country for training, selection, and replenishment, just like in the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties.

At this moment, there are more and more Shandong Dusi garrisons, and training and selection are also in progress.

When it comes to military training, Qi Jiguang is second to none in the world, and no one dares to claim to be first.

There was no problem at all in entrusting Qi Jiguang with the training and selection of the Beijing Camp troops. The key was to equip the Beijing Camp with enough muskets and artillery.

Early in the morning at about noon that day, Wanli brought Yongnian Earl Wang Wei and his party to the city gate tower at the south gate of Miyun County.

As the sun rises and the mist rises, the densely packed water wheels at the mouth of the Sancha River gradually appear, looking truly spectacular.

It's almost May now, and the capital is already feeling a bit hot and stuffy like early summer, but it's still cool and pleasant here.

Wanli raised his telescope with a look of satisfaction, scanning the distant large water wheels being built on both sides of the Chaobai River. He then asked, "Father-in-law, how many muskets and cannons can we produce in a day after these water wheels are completed?"

How do you say this?

Yongnianbo Wang Wei sighed slightly and said, "Your Majesty, the remaining river channel in the northernmost section of the Chaobai River was only about a mile long, and the width of the riverbank occupied by the 24- and 36-bucket waterwheels is too wide. Even if we dismantled all the 12-bucket waterwheels used for grinding and moved them to the banks of the Chaohe and Baihe Rivers, there wouldn't be enough space for many large waterwheels there.

I have calculated carefully that the width of the river bank occupied by the twenty-four-bucket water wheels is at least eighty feet, and the width of the river bank occupied by the thirty-six-bucket water wheels is at least ten feet, and the northernmost section of the Chaobai River is only about one hundred and sixty feet.

Years ago, we built twenty water wheels with a capacity of 24 buckets each. As each musket needs to be equipped with at least 24 bullets, one water wheel for forging gun barrels needs to be equipped with five water wheels for forging shells and four water wheels for forging bullet heads.

Therefore, before the New Year, the twenty water wheels forged more than twenty gun barrel blanks every day. Together with the polishing water wheels, they could just produce ten muskets a day.

Now we have added another set of ten water wheels with a capacity of 24 buckets each. Next month our production of muskets will be able to reach 15 per day.

As for artillery, the remaining river channel can only accommodate eight thirty-six-bucket waterwheels, and we can only forge five barrel blanks a day, and only make about a hundred shell blanks, which means we can only equip each artillery piece with twenty shells."

This output is actually quite good. Fifteen muskets and five cannons are produced every day. Together with the muskets produced in the previous few months, the number of muskets will reach nearly five thousand by the end of the year, and the number of cannons will probably reach one thousand, which is just enough to equip fifty thousand soldiers in the Beijing camp.

He was just making his own calculations when Qi Jiguang suddenly came up quickly, clasped his hands, and said, "Your Majesty, the four Divine Machine Battalions, each with 10,000 men, are almost fully staffed. Should we continue to reinforce the four Divine Machine Battalions or send another 10,000 men to the four Divine Shu Battalions?"

The Shandong Regional Military Commission was close by, and with the Beiyun River and Luyun River, the garrisons gathered quite quickly.

Wanli thought for a moment and then asked, "How many garrisons does the Shandong Military Region have?" Qi Jiguang answered with a list of them: "Your Majesty, the Shandong Military Region has eighteen garrisons, seventeen guard garrisons, four ceremonial guard garrisons, and three herdsmen garrisons, and the standard number of garrisons should be over 120,000.

However, the shortage of garrison guards in various military prefectures is quite serious. Shandong Military Prefecture is considered to be relatively good, but only about 70% of its garrison guards are left, which is about 80,000 garrison guards.

There are quite a few guards here.

Wanli pondered, "Yuan Jing, could you please select over 40,000 elite garrison troops from the Shandong Commandery and equip each of the four Shenshu battalions with 5,000 men?"

Do you want to choose ten thousand more?

Qi Jiguang thought about it, then nodded slightly and said, "This problem is not a big one. The key is that we don't have chariots now. The Fourth Battalion of the Shenshu is a chariot battalion, and it will be difficult to train without chariots."

The chariot should be no problem, there are a lot of carpenters here.

Wanli simply asked, "What kind of chariot do you want to build? Approximately how many do you need? I will immediately ask my father-in-law to organize people to build it for you."

Qi Jiguang explained in detail: "These charioteers can also carry some food and supplies. I think it would be best to have one chariot per team of five. Twenty thousand chariots means four thousand chariots.

As for the chariot design, I think it would be best to cover the chariot with a thin iron sheet to protect it from fire attacks, so that ordinary arrows cannot penetrate the chariot.

Four thousand chariots are not a lot. Now they have hammers driven by water wheels, so it is not difficult to forge thin iron sheets.

Wanli nodded slightly and said, "Okay, father-in-law, you should quickly manpower Yuan Jing to build chariots. Try to build these 4,000 chariots within a month."

Upon hearing this, Yongnian Earl Wang Wei bowed without hesitation and said, "Your humble servant obeys your order."

Qi Jiguang said cautiously, "Your Majesty, chariots must be equipped with war horses, otherwise they will march slower than infantry."

They only have four or five thousand war horses in total now. If they are so exhausted, it would be inconvenient for him to return to Kyoto.

Altan Khan paid tribute of more than 30,000 war horses every year. It would be good if you could pay tribute of more than 3,000 war horses every year.

Wanli frowned upon hearing this and then asked, "Doesn't the Shandong Regional Command have three herding stations? Can they gather 4,000 war horses?"

This one.

Qi Jiguang said rather embarrassedly, "Your Majesty, you have seen the horses in Jingyangyang. It is considered good if we can select one war horse out of ten. Although the horses in Qunmushu are better, they are not much better.

"I estimate that the three herdsmen of the Shandong Provincial Command can only mobilize a thousand war horses, which would be considered good. Moreover, mobilizing war horses requires approval from the Cabinet and the Ministry of War, which I'm afraid will be difficult to approve."

Zhang Siwei, you bastard, you always oppose me. I really want to kill you right now.

When Wanli heard this, he became furious.

He really wanted to take action.

After the 60,000 troops of the Beijing Army were equipped with weapons and equipment, he wanted to fight with Zhang Siwei!
He was just thinking about how to fight Zhang Siwei when suddenly a horse galloped towards him from the south.

It looks like it's not a memorial.

What happened here?
After a while, Li Xuancheng came up with an envelope and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, Luo Sigong has a secret report."

What did Luo Sigong find out?

Upon hearing this, Wanli couldn't wait to open the envelope and take a look. The corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up slightly, revealing a wicked smile.

The cycle of nature and retribution is unpleasant.

Zhang Siwei’s biological father Zhang Yunling passed away suddenly!
It's retribution, it's really retribution. I made you a traitor to the country, and conferred upon Nurhaci the title of Dragon and Tiger General, and gave him the imperial edict to be the Left Commander of Jianzhou Guard.

Zhang Juzheng lost his father, and you still secretly tripped him up and set him up.

Now, let’s see what you do.

There are rules in the Ming Dynasty officialdom. When parents die, one must return home to observe mourning for three years to show filial piety.

Whether Zhang Siwei goes back or not, he will be in big trouble.

This time, God is really helping me!
(End of this chapter)