My father is Jiajing

Chapter 134 Military power in hand, everything is ready
Zhu Zaigui directly pointed out his importance in this place and gave the choice to Feng Bao and others.

After listening to Zhu Zaigui's words, Feng Bao and others were very clear about the weight of Zhu Zaigui's words. Although this might be a road of no return, the situation before them and Prince Yu's determination at the moment left them with no way out. They could only obey Zhu Zaigui's orders, otherwise the huge industrial park might fall into the fear of being leaderless in an instant.

This would cause even greater damage, which would be even worse for the capital's garrison, which was already in an extremely critical situation. Therefore, at this moment they had no choice but to obey Zhu Zaigui's order.

Feng Bao knelt on the ground and held up the command token that controlled the four guards of the Imperial Horse Administration, "I will obey your orders, Your Majesty!"

When Teng Xiang and the others saw Feng Bao kneeling, they also knelt down and said, "We will obey your orders, Your Majesty!"

Looking at the people who had surrendered, Zhu Zaigui suddenly felt intoxicated with the power in his hands.

But before he had the time to savor this feeling, Zhu Zaigui had already suppressed this fatal thought.

The most important thing at this time is to arrange specific strategic measures to slow down Andada's progress. This is the starting point for Zhu Zaigui to risk his life to gain military power this time.

If you indulge in the taste of power before things are done, you are simply seeking death!

Zhu Zaigui calmed down and immediately ordered: "Teng Xiang!"

Teng Xiang stepped out and bowed again: "I am here."

Zhu Zaigui said: "From now on, you will be the commander of the Fourth Guard Battalion. I order you to lead the 2,000 cavalrymen of the Fourth Guard Battalion and the 500 skilled cavalry guards in the estate to obey my orders."

Teng Xiang immediately accepted the order, "I obey your command."

Zhu Zaigui gave Feng Bao another order: "Feng Bao, you are the general manager of the industrial park. Immediately lead 6,000 people to the upper reaches of Chaobai River to block the river. As for how to operate, you can consult Zhang Tianci, the supervisor of the industrial park. He is a talent in this area."

Feng Bao's understanding of his own identity changed very quickly, and he immediately found his position clearly, "I obey your command."

Zhu Zaigui looked at Feng Bao who was obedient, and said in a gentle voice: "Although the workers in the industrial park are not as elite as the soldiers of the Four Guards, they can also obey orders. This time, the damming of Chaobai River is of great importance and must be completed within one day. When the time comes, you will wait for my signal upstream. Once you receive the signal, you don't need to ask others, just blow up the dam immediately. I will follow the example of my ancestors and give the Tatars a cold shower!"

After Feng Bao heard Zhu Zaigui's plan, although he didn't know how Zhu Zaigui was going to achieve it, he still excitedly bowed and said, "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will complete the task within one day."

Zhu Zaigui said, "Very good. The industrial park has prepared shovels and sacks of earth and stones for you. There is no time to lose. You should act immediately."

Feng Bao immediately took action after receiving the order. According to Zhu Zaigui's instructions, he took 6,000 industrial park workers, shovels and sacks, and hurriedly led Zhang Tianci, who was still in a daze, to set off.

Zhang Tianci, who followed Feng Bao, didn't know what had happened, but looking at the scene in front of him, he was not stupid and knew that something big must have happened.

So at this moment, Zhang Tianci couldn't help but feel panic and nervous, but he didn't dare to delay his business. He immediately found a diversion location upstream for Feng Bao and directed 6,000 people to start filling earth and stones to divert the Chaobai River.

Zhu Zaigui looked at the remaining people and gave orders in an orderly manner. Zhu Zaigui asked Teng Xiang to collect all the gunpowder brought by the four guards, and then asked him to mix all the gunpowder with sugar and reseal it within an hour. At the same time, he asked the skilled firearms craftsmen to use the glass jars that sealed Yiran sugar as containers, put a certain proportion of gunpowder and glass slag, as well as some sugar, flour and other things in it, and use them as ground bombs.

After making these arrangements, Zhu Zaigui ordered two thousand firearms soldiers to deploy tiger squat cannons on the Chaobai River line and wait for military orders to act.

The Tiger Crouching Cannon is a light artillery that can be carried by two people. Its range is not too far and its power is not too great. It is a bit like the mortar of later generations, but it is still far inferior to the convenience and power of the mortar.

After all, at this time in the Ming Dynasty, there were no seamless steel pipes and no industrialized artillery shells with primers, so small artillery such as the Tiger Crouching Cannon was completely cast with pig iron, which seemed very heavy. Without the strength of two people, it was difficult to use it maneuverably.

But even so, the emergence of this small artillery is epoch-making. With them, even if the mobility of the Ming army cannot catch up with the grassland cavalry, with this portable tiger squat cannon, the grassland cavalry will not dare to charge easily.

Therefore, the emergence of this small artillery also brought about changes to ancient warfare that were completely different from the era of cold weapons, leading to a stalemate of balance of power between the Central Plains and the grasslands.

If firearms had been allowed to develop further, or if the Ming Dynasty's financial situation had enabled its border troops and weapons and equipment to receive supplies like during the Yongle period, perhaps the people of the grasslands would now have become hospitable and good at singing and dancing.

But unfortunately, the finances of the Ming Dynasty are extremely tight now. Except for a few elite troops that can maintain high-level equipment, most of the garrison soldiers actually live like refugees.

Therefore, it is wishful thinking to expect such an army to be combat-effective.

But even with such a rotten army, according to calculations by Tan Lun, a famous general and minister in the late Jiajing period, the Ming Dynasty still maintained more than 1.5 million soldiers. I really don't know how they squeezed out the money for their medical treatment and food wages.

However, now is not the time to think about these issues. Besides, the principle of supporting so many garrison soldiers is actually the same as that of supporting the canal workers.

So many people have families to feed and need to make a living. If the imperial court did not find ways to give them jobs, take care of their food and ensure they have enough to eat, the Ming Dynasty would have been in turmoil long ago.

Therefore, even though there were so many redundant troops, the imperial court did not dare to cut them easily and could only accept it.

Zhu Zaigui then ordered Meng Chong and Chen Hong to assist Li Shizhen in rearranging the living areas and vacant large factory buildings in the industrial park as temporary shelters for civilians and field hospitals, and to arrange for the treatment of fleeing civilians and wounded soldiers at any time.

Then he ordered Li Fang to be responsible for all supervisory work in the industrial park. Anyone who dared to cause trouble or disobey discipline in the industrial park would be punished by military law, no matter who they were.

After arranging these things, Zhu Zaigui also took action when the time came.

Zhu Zaigui put on a suit of armor and mounted his horse. He had a standard long sword hanging from his waist and a long sword in his hand. He ordered, "All cavalrymen, obey my orders. Bring your weapons and prepare your food. Ride to Huangyugou in Gubeikou within an hour to set up an ambush to meet the enemy!"

At this moment, Teng Xiang and other 2,500 cavalrymen, who had been ready, also mounted their horses, took their newly configured gunpowder and firearms, as well as newly equipped ground bombs, and followed Zhu Zaigui to prepare to set off.

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(End of this chapter)