Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

Capital city, Xishan camp.

Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye it was August. From far away, one could hear shouts coming from the Xishan camp, and sometimes the roar of galloping war horses.

From March to August, the 24,000 soldiers of the Beijing camp, led by Zhang Shikang, trained non-stop every day. With sufficient food and fodder, they all became vigorous and powerful.

Even Zhang Shikang has developed a body of muscular muscles. It can be said that if the current him were asked to beat his former self, he would be confident that he could knock out his past self with one punch.

He became darker and stronger.

This summer has been unusually hot, and there has still not been a drop of rain in the entire north.

As a person from later generations, Zhang Shikang knew that this was because we were now in a Little Ice Age with drought and little rain, but others did not know.

In the eyes of some people, they only know how to talk after the event and highlight it in history books, saying that the Ming Dynasty fell because God wanted it to fall. But Zhang Shikang knew in his heart that God didn't care at all.

Whether it is the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, or even the whole world, God doesn’t care. Destroying you has nothing to do with you.

Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan are all experiencing extremely severe droughts, which are often accompanied by locust plagues. Many people die and no one cares, and epidemics are prone to occur. It is said that Shandong has also been greatly affected.

Zhang Shikang was helpless about this, as the imperial court had no food and silver for disaster relief, and Yang Sichang, who was suppressing bandits in Huguang, had already sucked all the blood of the entire imperial court.

Many times, Zhang Shikang felt that Yang Sichang was suspected of extravagance and waste, but he did not impeach him. Now that the situation in Huguang is critical, whether his impeachment is successful or not, it will never be of any benefit to the front line.

Who knows, it might turn out to be a bad thing. Let it be a waste. As long as the bandits can be wiped out, the imperial court will have one less huge threat.

What's more, Brother Chongzhen still trusts Yang Sichang very much, so why should I be the one who stabs him in the back?

Zhang Shikang was not afraid of him, but as a playboy, he would stab someone in the face. As long as Yang Sichang dared to cause trouble, he would stab him.

But now, he still hopes that Fatty Yang can destroy the bandits. Without the bandits, perhaps he can go home and lie down.

Zhang Shikang only hoped that after the bandits were wiped out, the court would be able to free up food and silver for disaster relief as soon as possible. If no relief efforts were made to address the disaster in the four northern provinces, perhaps it wouldn't be long before another Zhang Zicheng or Wang Xianzhong would pop up.

Alas, this broken ship of the Ming Dynasty is really leaking everywhere!

"Admiral, the Ministry of Works has just delivered 400 turtledove-foot guns. I have checked them and they are all of acceptable quality."

Just as he was thinking about it, a strong man in his forties came from the direction of the craftsmen to report.

"There are only 400 of them. Why is the efficiency of the Ministry of Works so low? It's been a month. General Mao, is the Ministry of Works just trying to get by with this admiral?" Zhang Shikang said with a frown.

The burly man in front of him was Mao Yuanyi, the author of "Wubei Zhi". Brother Chongzhen was very efficient and found the person for him in just one and a half months.

In fact, Zhang Shikang later realized that it was not because the imperial court was efficient, but because the uncle in front of him was too fierce.

According to Mao Yuanyi, upon receiving the imperial edict, the uncle did not even pack his bedding, but directly found a fast horse from the garrison. It only took him eleven days to gallop from Fujian to the capital.

You have to know that Fujian is far away from the capital. Under normal circumstances, the tiring journey back and forth would take at least two months.

The reason why this uncle was so anxious was that he thought the court summoned him in order to re-employ him.

According to historical records, if Zhang Shikang had not intervened, this uncle would have been full of ambition after being exiled to Fujian. He had been looking forward to the imperial edict and wanted to continue serving his country. However, the court ignored him, and he drank in grief and anger, and finally drank himself to death.

Yes, that's right, this uncle is a war maniac.

That is the legendary warrior who has a country but no home.

Although Mao Yuanyi is famous for writing Wubeizhi, he himself does not think that his strength lies in technology. He is even a little averse to it, so Zhang Shikang calls him General Mao instead of Mr. Mao.

Mao Yuanyi traveled day and night to the capital only to find that the emperor did not want to see him at all, but asked the eunuchs to take him to the Xishan camp. He then realized that he was able to escape punishment because of the young admiral of the Beijing camp in front of him.

"My Lord Admiral, the turtledove-foot gun has just begun trial production. There will always be a period of adaptation. Perhaps it will be better this month." Mao Yuanyi reported truthfully.

"It's still too slow, General Mao. Could it be that the guy named Fang didn't try his best?" Zhang Shikang frowned.

After all, he had tricked Fang Fengnian last time, and Zhang Shikang was worried that this old guy would do something bad in secret.

Mao Yuantong and his team spent a month working on this turtle-foot gun, but they were only able to copy half of its parts. The reason they were able to start trial production so quickly was all thanks to the uncle in front of them.

The uncle knew that he was able to escape punishment because of Zhang Shikang, so he was quite grateful. Knowing that Zhang Shikang wanted to imitate the Banjiu gun, he locked himself in the military tent for four whole days.

Then, he overcame the technical difficulties of the turtledove-foot gun.

Even if he had known that this uncle was so awesome, this was still too awesome. Zhang Shikang was so happy at the time, thinking that he had really found a treasure.

But after a few days of contact, he discovered that his treasure didn't seem to be interested in firearms at all.

This uncle knew that Zhang Shikang was trusted by the emperor, and he expressed more than once that he hoped Zhang Shikang could speak to the emperor for him so that he could return to the outside of the Great Wall and continue to command the troops. He still wanted to go into battle and kill the enemy.

Zhang Shikang felt very disappointed. I wanted to shine my heart on the bright moon, but the bright moon only shines on the ditch.

But after all, he was the first technology tycoon he had found, so Zhang Shikang was not going to give up. He felt that this uncle had problems with his ideas, and there was more than one way to serve the country.

"Not really, but I really don't like this Minister of Works," Mao Yuanyi replied.

"Oh? Why?" Zhang Shikang asked.

"Hmph, these servile people only know how to curry favor with others. The Ming Dynasty is ruined by people like them." Mao Yuanyi did not hide the contempt on his face at all.

After all, he was the deputy general and knew some officials of the court.

"Yes, yes, yes. This admiral doesn't like that guy either. He doesn't look like a good person." Zhang Shikang echoed.

He had already realized that Mao Yuanyi was almost beheaded twice. It was neither unfair nor injustice.

This uncle is a pure steel straight man! The kind with basically zero emotional intelligence.

In fact, he was able to write an encyclopedic military work and was knowledgeable about so many weapons and armaments. According to later generations, he was a pure science and engineering man.

The two times he was almost beheaded were actually not complicated, and he was not primarily responsible. If there had been someone in the court who could speak for him, he would not have been demoted every time and almost lost his head.

"My Lord Commander, I have been thinking about this for the past two days. The Thunder Gun developed by Zhao Shizhen may not be suitable for the firearms soldiers in the camp.

This type of gun is much heavier than the Rumi gun or even the Banjiu gun. More barrels mean a higher failure rate, and loading ammunition is more troublesome.

Most importantly, I saw that the firearms soldiers in the camp also practiced sword fighting. If they used this kind of gun, they would not be able to use swords in close combat unless they threw the gun away.

I hope the Admiral will be aware of this."

Zhang Shikang had only heard about this kind of thunder gun from Mao Yuanyi for the first time a few days ago. Zhang Shikang was so happy that he couldn't sleep all night.

According to Mao Yuanyi's description, the Thunder Gun has five gun barrels arranged in a regular pentagonal shape. When shooting at the enemy, light one of the guns. After firing, twist the gun barrel seventy degrees to continue shooting.

Damn, isn’t this just a low-profile version of Gatling?

At that time, Zhang Shikang thought that Zhao Shizhen was truly a genius.

"It's a pity that we can't engage in close combat." Zhang Shikang thought for a while and said.

He indeed overlooked the level of industry at that time. If the Qing Dynasty could develop a Gatling gun, then there would be no future for the Qing Dynasty.

However, he considered the problem from a different angle than Mao Yuanyi. Since that thing was very heavy, the soldiers would definitely not be able to run fast if equipped with it.

So, it’s really not suitable.

“However, the instant-firing musket you mentioned was one I had seen in Jiangnan before. It was said that it was captured by the Zheng family’s navy from foreign invaders.

I feel that if the Admiral wants to increase the power of his firearms, the Thunder Gun would be worse than the Instant Gun.

It's a pity that Sun Yuanhua is gone, otherwise, with his obsession with firearms, he would have been able to produce it quickly." Mao Yuanyi sighed.

"Yes, it's all my fault. I came too late. The Ming Dynasty has lost a great talent!" Zhang Shikang echoed.

Whether it is Mao Yuanyi or Song Yingxing, although they are both encyclopedias of one or two industries, the scope of their studies is too broad after all.

For example, Mao Yuanyi, although he knew everything about the military field, such as vehicles, ships, cold weapons, firearms and even military formations, but if you asked him to really build the largest treasure ship during the time of Zheng He, this uncle would be dumbfounded.

After all, the largest treasure ship used by Zheng He when he sailed to the West had a hull length of more than 100 meters. What a concept, it was a small aircraft carrier.

As for Mao Yuanyi, he only knew the structure, usage, power, etc. of most military weapons.

If he really does scientific research, he is definitely better than ordinary craftsmen like Mao Yuantong, but compared with the big guys in certain specialized fields, it is another matter.

Sun Yuanhua was a very good specialist. He specialized in the field of firearms throughout his life and was particularly good at artillery.

In the Ming Dynasty, dozens of imitation French cannons were developed by imitating the Portuguese artillery, half of which were developed by this guy alone.

It is said that Nurhaci, the father of the pseudo-Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty, was seriously injured by the artillery made by Sun Yuanhua during the battle of Ningyuan, and died a few months later.

Unfortunately, this guy was good at artillery, but he was very bad at politics. He had low emotional intelligence and was tricked by Kong Youde, and was finally executed by Brother Chongzhen.

See? Uncle, if you insist on not listening to me and go out to lead the troops to fight alone, this old man Sun will be your fate.

Zhang Shikang wanted to say this, but he thought it was too cruel, so he changed the subject:

"General Mao, Zhao Shizhen and Sun Yuanhua were indeed talented people, but they are already dead. You should think about it again.

There are so many people in the Ming Dynasty, are there any powerful ones still alive?"

Boss Mao Yuanyi glared at Zhang Shikang. He didn't understand why this young admiral was so interested in a lowly craftsman.

Being able to become the commander-in-chief of the Beijing Camp at such a young age, shouldn’t his thoughts be on the battlefield to kill the enemies and eliminate the disobedience of the court?

Mao Yuanyi wanted to say so, but he felt that he would have to be sent to the army again. After thinking for a while, he said:

"Of course there are some alive. Song Yingxing is one of them, but he doesn't specialize in firearms. Apart from Sun Yuanhua, the one I know of who has the most profound attainments in firearms is Brother Bi Maokang.

Although I have never met him, I have been friends with him for a long time. This man was the Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of War and only resigned and returned to his hometown a few years ago. The admiral is in the capital and should know about him.

After he returned to his hometown, I heard that he had been writing a book, also about firearms, which seemed to be called "Illustrated Explanation of Military Equipment". This book was different from my humble work and was intended for research and development.

Bi Maokang and his brother Bi Maoliang have always had a good reputation and are known as the 'Two Bis'.

Zhang Shikang was listening with great interest just now, but at the end he almost spit out the tea he had just taken a sip of.

"Wait a minute, what is the person called? B???"

……