Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 247: Swapping Prisoners
"Old Chen! You're here too."

The old military craftsman's surname is Chen, and his name is Chen Jin. He is 60 years old, but he has good hearing and eyesight, a strong body, and he walks vigorously, not losing to any young people.

When Chen Jin saw Yang Chao, he was about to kneel down immediately, but Yang Chao quickly helped him up.

Chen Jin gave a slightly cautious smile, and cupped his hands: "I've seen Mr. Yang!"

Chen Jin had met Yang Chao before, and knew that Yang Chao was a guerrilla general from Huai'an. After arriving in Haizhou, he had several battles with captive soldiers. Yang Chao is to rescue Haizhou, which makes Chen Jin somewhat grateful.

Yang Chao cupped his hands in return: "Old Chen, you're welcome."

No matter what, he is an old man in sixties. Yang Chao can't bear to let such a person kneel down on him. Moreover, this old man has been blacksmithing all his life and has a lot of experience. He can tell whether there is a defect in the metal just by relying on his ear with the hammer. His ability, in later generations, would be considered as an old expert. He may not be so professional academically, but this level of skill is at the level of national treasures.

It's just that it was a later generation, and the craftsmanship of Chen Jin in the Ming Dynasty was not so valuable. The reason was that there were too many blacksmiths in this era, unlike later generations who relied on machines, so people in the Ming Dynasty had a more direct sense of metal.

"I don't know if Mr. Yang will come here in person, but what's the matter?"

Chen Jin asked, knowing that Yang Chao was sitting on the top of the city and fighting fiercely with the captive soldiers every day. He couldn't help in the battle, but he would be fine in blacksmithing. Even if he was asked to pick up the blacksmith's hammer and forge the iron himself, he would be willing.

Yang Chao said: "I really have something to trouble Mr. Chen. I want Mr. Chen to help me with a few things."

As he spoke, Yang Chao gestured with his hands and told Chen Jin what he was going to do.

Chen Jin nodded: "It's not difficult to do, any apprentice can do it."

Yang Chao naturally knew that it was not difficult to make, and did not require any technical content, otherwise he would not have found a blacksmith.

Chen Jin immediately ordered the blacksmiths to put down their work and start helping Yang Chao.

Then he accompanied Yang Chao to look in the blacksmith's shop.

This blacksmith shop is the largest blacksmith shop in Haizhou City. There were originally six blacksmith furnaces, employing more than ten apprentices and masters to work.

Coincidentally, the old owner of the blacksmith shop and Chen Jin are brothers, and they learned to blacksmith from a master back then.

And now all the craftsmen in Haizhou were organized by Song Lian to help the army build weapons, and an old craftsman like Chen Jin was given an important mission. He was ordered to organize and build a new batch of bird guns.

After the task was issued, Chen Jin immediately picked a group of skilled blacksmiths, and they all gathered in the old man's blacksmith shop to make gun barrels day and night.

"Old Chen, I don't know how the bird gun is made?"

Now that he came and met Chen Jin again, Yang Chao naturally wanted to ask about the situation of the bird gun.

Chen Jin immediately replied: "I have already made more than ten bird gun tubes, and in two days, I will be able to make ten more!"

Yang Chao nodded. He has only been here for four days. Although these blacksmiths work day and night and take turns forging iron, it is very rare to be able to make ten gun barrels.

You must know that it takes a month for the blacksmiths in Nanjing to make a bird gun.

Yang Chao immediately encouraged: "Everyone has worked hard. When the captive soldiers retreat, I will definitely announce that the imperial court will reward all the masters!"

Yang Chao is definitely not deceiving them, he really has this in mind, if these blacksmiths perform well and contribute a lot in this war, they should be rewarded, even if the court doesn't care about the credits of a few craftsmen, he himself should mean.

Chen Jin hurriedly said: "Everything should be done. Those of us can't help in the war. It's our duty to give the Lord some weapons!"

Yang Chao said: "Then I'll have to thank Mr. Chen. By the way, I don't know if Mr. Chen has tried the method I said last time?"

Chen Jindao: "My lord ordered, how dare I disobey, I followed my lord's order. These people are all forging gun barrels, and other things are made in other places."

Yang Chao nodded. Many craftsmen at this time finish all the parts by themselves and then assemble them. There is no standardization requirement. Anyway, only all the parts can be combined and they can be used in the end. Therefore, each part When they are followed, they will also run in with each other, and if they are not suitable, they will be repaired.

The advantage of this manual workshop method is that it will not waste materials, but the disadvantage is that it is slow and very non-standard. Every bird gun is unique.

Of course, it is not practical to require standardized production now. Yang Chao just asked someone to do it alone for the most time-consuming part of the barrel. These blacksmiths who are responsible for making the barrel are responsible for making the barrel every day, and the refined iron used is others. After forging, they saved the time of forging refined iron by themselves, so they forged ten gun barrels in just four days and three nights.

Of course, these gun barrels are not yet fully made. These hand-made gun barrels are rolled together with double-layer refined iron sheets, red-hot forged and welded together, but then a drill stand is used for grinding and drilling. Because the gun tube still needs to be drilled in the end, and Yang Chao requires the drill bits of several drilling machines to be made in the same way, so as to ensure that at least the caliber of the blunderbuss is the same in the end, and the consistent lead bullets can be used with the same caliber, which will greatly improve the efficiency. .

During the manufacturing process, Chen Jin needs to inspect every barrel to ensure that there will be no defective products in the end.

Therefore, Chen Jin's role is very important, he is the guarantee of quality.

So Yang Chao respected him very much: "That's hard work for Mr. Chen, but don't be too tired, you should rest when you should rest."

After exhorting, Yang Chao said goodbye and left.

Although he didn't step on the city, it doesn't mean that Yang Chao doesn't care about today's city defense. After returning, he immediately asked people to inquire about it.

The attack of the captive soldiers today is not the same as yesterday, the intensity has dropped too much.

After all, there was a fierce battle yesterday, and the captive soldiers suffered heavy losses, so they had to make some adjustments.

The captive soldiers didn't even climb the ladder to attack the city, but sent people to shoot arrows under the city for a day.

At the end of the day, the Ming army had no casualties. Of course, there were almost no casualties among the captive soldiers, because the Ming army almost did not fight back when they saw that the captive soldiers did not attack the city.

The day passed peacefully, but Yang Chao didn't think that the captive soldiers were about to give up. On the contrary, he thought that the captive soldiers were temporarily resting and preparing for the next more violent attack. Even if they didn't launch a strong attack today, they were just going Probing, looking for Yang Chao's flaws.

Of course, Yang Chao couldn't have imagined the real intentions of the captive soldiers, and his combat experience was still too shallow.

At this time, in the barracks of the captive soldiers, the senior leaders gathered together, five Baya Latuzhangjing, and two Mongolian Baylors were there.

The Bayara Elite Army Battalion in charge of each banner under Bayara Thuzhangjing may only have 700 elite soldiers, but they are the main force for attacking the fortified city and destroying the city. They will be dispatched at the most critical time.

As for Mongolian Baylor, which seems to have a high title, it may not be that strong, and it cannot be compared with Manzhou Baylor, so they sit at the back instead.

The one who sits at the head is naturally Turg.

The two Mongolian Baylors are Gushan Ezhenshanba of Tumed Left Banner and Gushan Ezhen'er Mubchuhuer of Tumed Right Banner. These two men now have fifteen or six hundred Mongolian warriors each. .

For the Eight Banners of Manchuria, these Mongols are really not good at fighting, but they are like wolves when they rob. Although they are also a bandit group, the Manchus still look down on these Mongols, and thieves have to have taste. Everything is robbed.

Therefore, when the Manchus went to war, the Mongols who followed were often used as cannon fodder. They did not trust the Mongols when they really attacked Jiancheng. Hurry up, let them attack the city, and have to guard against being led away by them.

But now Turg can't ignore these Mongols. Turg knows in his heart that although these Mongols have long lost the bravery of their ancestors in the Genghis Khan era in terms of fighting will, the level of riding and shooting is still very high. Needless to say, riding skills, The level is still far above Manchu, and the archery skills are almost the same.

Weakness lies in the will to fight. Speaking of it, it is because of lack of discipline. If these herdsmen are formed into a tight team by a leader like Genghis Khan, they will be terrifying war machines.

So after the Manchurians defeated Mongolia, they also compiled and trained the Eight Banners for Mongolia. Unfortunately, the organization is still far behind the Manchurian Banners. Of course, the Manchurians did not seriously train these Mongolian soldiers. If they really want to train them into a strong army, then how about the Manchurian Banners? Live them in awe.

Therefore, intentionally or unintentionally, in the Eight Banners group, the combat effectiveness of the Mongolian Eight Banners has never been able to catch up with the Manchu Eight Banners.

The reason why Turg called two Mongolian Baylors to the meeting today was that it was time to use Mongolian warriors.

"The two Baylors, Ben Gushan intends to attack tomorrow, do you have any suggestions?"

Shanba and Chuhuer looked at each other, and Shanba spoke: "Report to Turggu Mountain. Don't attack by force. The Ming army has a strong city guard, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack. My Daqing labor division did not have cannons when we went on an expedition. It is good for field battles, but not good for city siege. If the attack continues, even if we can win, there will be a lot of damage. These warriors have lost here for nothing, and it is not easy to explain to Bogda Khan when they go back."

Huang Taiji has the honorary title of Bogda Khan among the Mongols, and uses this to command all Mongols.

Turge snorted coldly in his heart, and explained to Huang Taiji that it was Turge's business. He came here to give Huang Taiji an explanation. The reason why the Mongols didn't want to attack the city was that it was not easy to explain to Huang Taiji. Totally afraid of death.

Speaking of Mongols dying more, Huang Taiji will not blame it. The population has always been the deathbed of the Manchus. The population of this strange nation has never been able to prosper. Even if it occupies so much land outside the pass, there are several times the Han people. Coating clothes for them and working for them, they have no worries in life, but the population still cannot develop. In terms of fertility, not to mention the Han people in the south, even the Mongolians on the plateau are much better than them.

Facing the Han people, Huang Taiji used power to control them, but for the Mongols, he used both kindness and majesty. After all, as a nomadic people, Huang Taiji knew that he would bite people when he pushed them into a hurry.

Therefore, Turge was very disdainful towards the two Mongolians who were afraid of death, but he couldn't show it on his face.

He said with a smile: "Don't worry about being a good Babele. Bengu Mountain didn't intend to storm the fortified city, but the Beizi caught by the Han people must be rescued, otherwise we can't explain to the general who was ordered. But if these Ming people don't If it hurts, they will not obediently hand over Beizi. So we just need to beat them up so that they are afraid, and then they will not only obediently hand over Beizi, but also ask them to hand over all the gold and silver in the city. Come out, they will not refuse."

Turge said patiently that these two Mongols had to be ruthless to fight, otherwise Turge really didn't have the confidence to rely on the thousands of Manchurian soldiers and a group of coats under his own hands. Most importantly, his men died There are too many, Turg also heartaches.

But the Mongols are not so easy to fool.

Shanba blinked his eyes and said: "Turge Gushan, it's not that I don't want to fight, but I don't want the warriors to die in vain. I have an idea, maybe if we don't want to fight, let the Ming people take Master Beizi and Jinyin Hand them over obediently."

Turge paused, and asked with a question: "Then I don't know what kind of idea Shan Babel has?"

Shanba laughed and said, "Why don't you exchange with the Ming people? Use the Ming people we captured to exchange with them!"

Turge looked pleasantly surprised, but asked cunningly: "If Mingren disagrees, will the two Baylors agree to attack the city?"

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(End of this chapter)