Since the establishment of the Port of Shanghai more than a year ago, it has undergone tremendous changes. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Originally, Shanghai County was only the Shanghai City God's Temple, and the area of Shanghai's Yu Garden has now expanded to the north to the Suzhou Creek.

On the edge of the Huangpu River, with the establishment of the Shanghai branch of Nanyang Bank, it has become the central city of Jiangnan. Although Nanjing was still in the hands of the Manchus, and the Manchu army could threaten Shanghai at any time, all the new buildings in Shanghai today are all five- or six-story buildings made of cement and iron cores.

Buildings made of cement and iron cores were so strong that each building could be converted into a sturdy castle in the event of a war. If the Qing army did reach Shanghai, they would find that although the city had no outer walls, once it entered the city, it would fall into the siege of castles.

With the completion of the port of Shanghai, large quantities of silk and tea were shipped through it to Southeast Asia and Japan, where they were exchanged for large quantities of silver, gold, spices, jewelry, and other luxury goods to be sent back to China.

Due to the huge profits brought by the export trade and the collapse of farmland prices, many gentry and great families converted their farmland into mulberry fields, cotton fields and tea forests, and planted mulberry trees, cotton and tea in large quantities. In this way, they will need fewer tenants, but what they produce will be more valuable.

As for the reduction of grain production in the south of the Yangtze River, there is no need to worry about this problem at all, because the large-scale cultivation of sweet potatoes has enabled the common people to obtain high-yield grain, coupled with the surplus of grain in Southeast Asia, and the price of grain produced by Wang Xinyu's rice fields in Southeast Asia is very cheap, and the landlords and gentry planted mulberry fields, sold raw silk, and bought grain from Southeast Asia after exchanging it for silver, and the price was much cheaper than producing grain by themselves.

The production of raw silk and cotton increased, and with it, the development of the textile industry.

Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, every city has a large number of textile factories. The development of the textile industry has stimulated craftsmen to update and improve textile equipment, and various textile mills compete with each other, and everyone is vying to improve the equipment so that they can produce more textiles.

The birth of various water-powered and animal-powered textile machines has greatly increased the output, coupled with the competition between manufacturers, the price of silk products has decreased.

Although the price of silk products has decreased, it has not caused manufacturers to lose money, but has made more profits, because firstly, the production cost has been greatly reduced, and secondly, the sales volume has soared.

Because of the falling prices, the Jiangning Weaving Mansion of the Manchu Dynasty no longer produced its own silk products, but secretly sent people to Shanghai and other places to buy the finest silk, packaged it by itself, and turned it into tribute to send to Beijing. Because the price of silk purchased from places like Shanghai was cheaper than the price of their own production, the officials of the Jiangning Weaving Mansion were able to make more profit from it and put more silver into their own pockets.

"I can't imagine that the development of our textile industry will make those Manchu officials greedy for more silver!" After listening to Chen Yonghua's report, Zhang Huangyan sighed.

Chen Yonghua shook his fan and smiled: "Then let the greedy ink be greedy!" The corrupt officials of the Manchu Qing Dynasty were a good thing for us! When the time comes for our Northern Expedition, those people may be the opposite! ”

Every month, a large number of Manchu officials came to buy silk products, which made those Manchu officials secretly fall to the side of the Ming court. The money they earned was all earned from this side, and once something happened, the Manchu court would not let them go, and their only way out was to surrender to the Ming army.

Zhang Huangyan flipped through the accounts and asked, "I don't know why, why didn't the king of the South China Sea pinch the supply channel of the Eight Banners special offerings by himself?" Something with such a high profit, but it just made Wu Sangui's dog thief profitable? ”

At this time, the Ming army also sold special offerings for the Eight Banners, but the number of special offerings for the Eight Banners that went directly to Shanghai and entered the Manchu-controlled area through Jiangnan was very small, and only a fraction of the special offerings of the Eight Banners sold by Wu Sangui were less than a fraction. The Eight Banners special offerings sold by the Ming army were mainly aimed at places outside Shanhaiguan, Korea and Japan.

Chen Yonghua said with a smile: "In fact, making Wu Sangui profitable is also a long-term plan. In this battle of Jinhua, the Tartars have already begun to suffer from the special offerings of the Eight Banners! Once the harmfulness of this kind of thing is fully exposed, the Manchu court will definitely ban it in large quantities! At that time, Wu Sangui will have to rebel if he doesn't fight back! ”

People are the same, it is easy to go from thrift to luxury, and it is difficult to go from luxury to thrift.

Now Wu Sangui has made a lot of money by specializing in the special offerings of the Eight Banners, the profits of this thing are really frighteningly high, I don't know how many times higher than the profits of cigarettes, Wu Sangui doesn't want to do cigarette business anymore, and only wants to specialize in the special offerings of the Eight Banners. It's just that I think I can earn some pocket money by selling cigarettes, so I didn't give up the cigarette business.

If the Qing court suddenly promulgated a law ordering the destruction of the Eight Banners special offerings and prohibiting the inflow of the Eight Banners special offerings, what would happen to Wu Sangui, who had made a windfall by relying on the Eight Banners special offerings?

The Qing court reduced Wu Sangui's troops many times because he held on to military spending. The Yunnan-Guizhou area has many mountains and few lands, and the products are barren, and the grain grown cannot even feed itself, so it can only rely on the Qing court to provide Wu Sangui with silver taels and grain. Therefore, several times the Qing court asked Wu Sangui to reduce his troops, and Wu Sangui could only honestly disarm.

What can be done without disarmament? The imperial court doesn't give you food and military salaries, can you Wu Sangui afford to raise so many people?

But now, after having the business of the Eight Banners Special Offerings, the Qing court can no longer hold Wu Sangui's life. Wu Sangui relied on the silver earned from the special offering business of the Eight Banners, and paid enough military salaries to the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty and the Green Camp in Pingxi Wangfu, and used the silver to buy a large amount of food, and also built a lot of weapons. As for the personnel who had been laid off from the previous disarmament, Wu Sangui bought them land and turned them into military reclamation households, hiding soldiers from the people.

Wu Sangui's series of small actions naturally can't hide from the Heaven and Earth Society.

Although Wu Sangui did this to protect himself, he knew that only if the vassal king had troops in his hands, he would not be taken by the imperial court at any time, but Wu Sangui had already aroused the suspicion of the Qing court.

Once the hazards of the Eight Banners Special Offerings are exposed, at that time, Wu Sangui can only rebel even if he doesn't want to.

If Wu Sangui rebelled, he could only rely on the Ming army, otherwise it would be difficult to compete with the Qing army just by relying on Wu Sangui's troops. And Wu Sangui is not ambitious, he just wants a local vassal king. Doesn't he want a vassal king? Then meet Wu Sangui's requirements first, anyway, Wu Sangui is old and won't live for a few days.

Thousands of miles away, outside the city of Batavia.

The mound had gradually reached a distance of less than a mile from the city, and the Dutch in the city had shelled it several times, but to no avail.

Half a month ago, a catamaran clipper operating in the Indian Ocean returned to report that the main fleet of the Dutch had appeared in the Indian Ocean and was about to pass through the Arabian Peninsula.

According to the calculation of time, the Dutch fleet is expected to reach the Strait of Malacca in just over a month. The Ming had to take Batavia before the Dutch fleet reached the Strait of Malacca, build it into a fortified castle, and rebuild the outer forts to add more powerful heavy artillery.

As long as the Dutch lost Batavia, and the news of the British occupation of New York in the Americas would probably reach when the Dutch fleet entered the Strait of Malacca, at that time, the Dutch might first try to attack Singapore and Batavia, and after suffering a heavy loss in front of the powerful batteries, the Dutch found that they could not conquer the city, and they were forced to return to Europe to deal with the British threat.

Wang Xinyu, who knew the outcome of the Anglo-Dutch War, commanded the siege in Fuzhou and did not come to Nanyang. However, he had already explained many things to Zhang Yukun, and he had also mentioned them to Albert, so that the British had to deal with the Dutch carefully.

After the slope of the earthen platform was built, the local overseers and Ming soldiers supervised the local people and excavated behind the earthen platform.

In fact, to arrange the mortar artillery position, it is necessary to first push the earth platform forward, then dig a trench behind, dig a big pit, and transport the mortar artillery into the big pit and arrange it. In this way, the artillery at the head of the city could not attack the mortar position, but the mortar could use its ballistic curve to attack the city wall.

The Dutch at the head of the city had been watching the Ming army set up mortar positions, and they were unwilling to wait for death like this, during which the Dutch organized two counterattacks, but they were both beaten back by the Ming army.

The Dutch counterattacked, and when they had just left the city and launched an attack on the Ming position, they were bombarded by artillery. Then the Ming army used muskets and random arrows, and the indigenous soldiers who had put the Dutch in front as cannon fodder were killed and wounded heavily.

After all, the natives who suffered heavy losses were not highly trained Dutch soldiers, and after more than 10 percent of the casualties, the natives began to break down, pushing the Dutch, and crowding back into the city.

He found that the indigenous soldiers were not reliable at all, but John Ma Suiju did not dare to let the small number of Dutch in the city come out to seize the artillery positions of the Ming army, after all, he was not at ease with the indigenous soldiers and black soldiers, he was worried that once the number of Dutch soldiers was reduced to a certain extent, he would not be able to suppress the indigenous soldiers and black soldiers with weapons in their hands, and at that time the Ming army did not need to attack the city, as long as the civil strife in the city could make the Dutch lose Batavia.

"The mortar is in place!" The mortar artillery position was arranged, and the mortar artillery came to report.

Zhang Yukun ordered: "Okay! Get ready! Get ready to bombard the walls! All the infantry are on standby, and once the walls are breached, start a siege operation! ”

A mortar was erected in a large pit behind the earthen platform, and the muzzle of the sixty-four-pounder mortar was facing the sky, and the ammunitionmen and auxiliaries carried boxes of shells and barrels of gunpowder into the mortar positions through the trenches.

"Ready, reload gunpowder, reload shells!" The mortar commander commanded.

The gunners filled the small chamber of the mortar with gunpowder, and then loaded the solid shells through the muzzle. In the first round of firing, solid shells were fired, which were used to adjust the data. Wait until you have adjusted it before firing the much more expensive flowering shells.

"Fire!" Several officers waved small flags in their hands.

There was a roar from the mortar position, the muzzle of the cannon spewed fire, and the shells rose into the air and smashed into the Batavia city wall more than 400 meters away.

"The enemy has opened fire!" The Dutch at the head of the city were shocked.

In the first round of shelling, only three of the twelve 64-pound solid shells hit, and the heavy shells flew into the air, fell heavily and smashed on the city walls. Although only three shells hit, such a heavy shell fell down, and cracks immediately appeared in the city wall, and the stones burst where they were hit, and the rubble flew sideways.

The shells that did not hit the walls either flew into the city and smashed houses, or landed outside the city, leaving a huge crater in the ground.

The impact force of mortar shells is very large, but it is also very economical of gunpowder, even if it is bombarded with mortar shells for three or four days in a row, it will not consume many shells, and the city wall cannot withstand so many days of bombardment.

According to the calculation that the mortar cannon can fire ten shells in an hour, and every hour of fire is cooled for half an hour, so that one cannon can fire 160 shells a day, and 12 mortar cannons, if fired continuously for three to four days, can smash thousands of powerful heavy shells on the city wall.

John Masui in the city was terrified when he heard the sound of the cannons. Although the hit rate of the Ming army was extremely poor in the first round of shelling, he knew very well that the hit rate would definitely increase significantly in the next round of shelling.

A few minutes later, the second round of shelling began.

The Dutch in the city heard the sound of gunpowder gas expanding from the Ming artillery position, and then saw twelve black iron balls rising from under the earthen platform, rising into the air and smashing towards their own city walls.

The iron ball reaches its highest point and begins to fall.

Seven shells smashed into the city wall, making a tooth-aching sound of stone cracking, and the shells left cracks in the city wall, and the stones flew everywhere where they were hit. One of the shells hit the women's wall, and a large part of the women's wall collapsed with a bang.

Then the third round of shelling began, still with solid shells, this time eight shells hitting the walls. Some of the shells smashed directly on the city, and a large piece of the city bricks on the floor were shattered, and the flying broken bricks smashed on the top of the city's artillery, making a sound of metal colliding.

"Bang" a cannonball landed on the Lingbao, the cannonball just smashed on the fragile top of the fortress, pierced a large hole in the roof, the cannonball drilled into the fortress, smashed the stones and bricks inside, and the Lingbao screamed again and again, and the flesh and blood flew everywhere.

The Ming army shelled for an hour, firing twelve rounds, with an average of five minutes for a salvo, and in this first hour, all solid shells were fired.

The shelling stopped, and the Dutch knew that the Ming army must be cooling down the mortars.

"Hurry up, repair the city!" John Marsuige shouted orders.

The Dutch did not dare to waste this precious half hour, and they had to repair the head of the city and the castle as much as possible, so that the city could withstand a few more rounds of shelling.

On the mortar position, the Ming soldiers picked up water, poured buckets of water on the cannon body, poured water into the cannon chamber to cool down the mortar cannon, and then used a mop to clean and dry the inside of the cannon chamber.

After half an hour of cooling work, the temperature of the barrel dropped. Then, the Ming army began to fire flowering shells. (To be continued.) )