Chapter 518: The General Trend of the World
Come to think of it, yes, breech-loading rifled guns have already appeared in Europe today, but they have not yet been widely used on a large scale. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoIn fact, the Crimean War is currently being fought, and by the end of the war next year, breech-loading rifled artillery will appear on the battlefield, but it has not yet become widespread.
Now this Krupp has its own superficial but cheating pioneering ideas, and together with the development of more than a dozen weapons technicians hired from Prussia, it has finally succeeded in producing a breech-loading rifled gun.
And the process of producing rear-loading rifled guns with tank steel drilling rifling line that he pointed out is the leading process that can only be developed by later generations at the end of the sixties of the 19th century, that is, ten years after the original Krupp company.
Feng Yunshan knew that the British Armstrong gun would not be ordered by the British government until 1858, and it would not be adopted on a large scale until 1859. Moreover, even so, the rear-loading rifled guns produced by the Armstrong guns were unreliable, with major shortcomings such as poor armor-piercing ability and high cost, so in the sixties and seventies of the 19th century, Britain still used the front-loading Armstrong rifled guns on a large scale.
In this way, now their warships are equipped with this breech-loading rifled gun, or the world-famous Krupp cannon, which is already the most advanced artillery in the world today?
Feng Yunshan couldn't help but be a little surprised, and then there was a burst of ecstasy. With this Kruber cannon, at least he can feel a little more at ease, and he doesn't have to worry about Britain and France sending warships to attack him all day long.
However, as Wang Minyun said, the sailors of the Holy Kingdom are still very weak, and Changzhou Shipbuilding can barely manufacture Western warships of less than 1,000 tons, and there are still ready-made warships that can be imitated before it succeeds. The Changzhou Shipyard will have to wait for Wu Ruxiao to recruit those ship engineers from the United States and buy the shipyard if it wants to build large warships.
The current Outer Sea Division, said to be three, in fact, is equivalent to a slightly larger combined fleet of the United Kingdom, if the British and French powers really sent hundreds of warships like the two oppress wars in later generations, with the scale of today's Holy Sailors, only the part of abuse.
However, there are still two years to go, and my focus is to develop the sailors of the Holy Kingdom well, make full use of the power of the United States and Prussia, and spend more money.
Moreover, the most unfortunate, he took a defensive position, built forts in various customs estuaries and now has Krupp cannons, but it is not the kind of forts like the two oppress wars of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the later generations, and no warships have shot far and accurately, but like the naval battles of the later Qing and French wars, each battery purchased Krupp cannons at this time, which made the French warships suffer.
Feng Yunshan suddenly thought that the Manchu Qing would not be beaten by itself, and it would definitely look for countermeasures, ask for help from the foreign powers or buy weapons.
After all, in history, the Manchu Qing Dynasty still had many people with good vision, even if they suppressed Zeng Guofan, even if a fierce man like Li Hongzhang had not been able to take power, there were still figures like Gong Lao Liu Sushun. Perhaps, they have already asked for help from the foreign powers or purchased military supplies, but now because of the Crimean War, there is no way to take care of the Qing side?
Once the war over there is over, when the time comes, the matter of the Holy Kingdom's capture of the Manchus will be in turmoil again, and who knows if those powers will do anything when the Manchus wantonly sell their interests?
Thinking of this, Feng Yunshan's mind became a little anxious: before the end of the war in Europe, we must comprehensively defeat the Manchu Qing and occupy and unify the whole of China, only in this way can we concentrate our military strength to compete with the British and French powers, and can we become strong quickly, otherwise, maybe it will still be the same as in history, whether it is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom or the Manchu Qing, they will be quickly defeated by the foreign powers.
Moreover, as long as the Manchu Qing are completely defeated, it will no longer be a problem for the Jiangning Mansion and Taiping Mansion occupied by Hong Xiuquan, and the general trend will be occupied by themselves, and they will not be able to last long no matter what they do.
"Zongtang, now that our Holy Kingdom has just occupied Jiangnan, although it occupies half of China, it has not yet been stabilized. It stands to reason that it will take a year and a half of rest. However, this king received news that the British and French powers were very likely to send a large army to attack us in two years, so this king demanded that the Manchu ruling area be captured as soon as possible, and that at least two years control all coastal defenses along the coast, so as to deal with the sea attack of the great powers in advance. Feng Yunshan said to Zuo Zongtang with a serious face.
Zuo Zongtang was stunned for a moment, then nodded and said, "In this case, Holy King, my subordinates will go back and formulate a plan to send troops, and strive to quickly capture most of the northern Manchu Qing within a year and a half." However, if it is necessary to occupy the Manchu ruled area more quickly, the Holy King, his subordinates, still take the attack as the top, and the military capture as the supplement. ”
After speaking, Zuo Zongtang smiled at Fan Ruzeng on the side and continued: "I wonder if the Holy King has noticed? Recently, the captives attacked the city, and more and more Manchu magistrates and green battalion generals began to surrender the city or surrender outright. ”
Feng Yunshan recalled the war reports he had read, and it was true that more and more local officials were willing to surrender to the Holy State, whether it was Wu Zhenqi, the governor of Yunnan, or Wu Qitai, the envoy of Jiangsu, or Shi Jingfen, the prefect of Jinhua, Zhejiang, Ji Haiming, the prefect of Huijiang in Yunnan, Deng Erheng, the prefect of Yunan, and Pinghan, the prefect of Suzhou.
The surrender of these generals is even more illustrative of the fact that Li Jinwen, the chief soldier of Pu'er Town, and even Liu Renfu, the deputy general of the Huzhou Association, and Liu Renlu, the guerrilla commander, who took the initiative to take refuge in the Huzhou Association, as well as countless commanders of the garrison of the capital and other Qing army leaders. That is, many of the Qing generals were no longer loyal to the Manchu court, and began to realize the bad things of the Manchu court, and turned to the thriving holy state.
This is the same as the company employees in later generations who changed jobs, which is actually very understandable for Feng Yunshan. It's just that in this era, if you make a mistake in changing jobs, the consequences will be more serious, and your head will move, not just a matter of salary. It is precisely because the consequences are more serious that they will choose a better way out, and there is no doubt that the increasingly powerful holy kingdom is their goal.
"Not bad!" Feng Yunshan nodded and motioned for Zuo Zongtang to continue.
With Feng Yunshan's encouragement, Zuo Zongtang's spirits were lifted.
Now, Feng Yunshan doesn't seem to have changed, and he still values himself as much as before. But with the increasing expansion of the occupation area of the Holy Kingdom and the growing strength of the captive army, Zuo Zongtang felt that these had added a bit of aura to the Holy King, and the aura of the superior was becoming more and more obvious.
From the bottom of his heart, Zuo Zongtang has regarded the Holy King as an emperor like the founder of the country, so his attitude has become more and more respectful. After thinking about it, he said: "Holy King, after consideration, my subordinates believe that the national strength of the Holy Kingdom is no longer weaker than that of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, especially the military strength, which is significantly stronger than the Qing army. It is better to follow the precedent of the Northern Expedition of Ming Taizu and Mengyuan, but there is no need to copy it, now the situation in the Holy Kingdom is better than that in the early Ming Dynasty, I might as well not be as conservative as at that time, and take it directly: send the main force to take Shandong first, and remove its shield; then sent a partial division to attack Henan and Shanxi, and cut off their wings; Then he used the main division to march into the lair of the Jingshi of the Qing Demon. If the Qing army is stubbornly defending, it will be besieged and isolated and helpless, and it will be defeated without a fight. If the north is not encircled, most of the Qing troops will flee north to the old nest of Liaodong outside the Guan. ”
"At that time, the Holy King can take advantage of the situation to ascend to the throne and appease the local bureaucrats in the provinces, and he will definitely come and surrender. Then he rewarded Qin Rigang, the old general of the Taiping Army in Liaodong, and ordered him to fight with the Manchus, and then took the opportunity to send troops, and the world could be determined in a war. ”
Zuo Zongtang said this, and further explained: "The key to this move is to make a sensation in the world with one blow, so that the civil and military officials of the Manchu Qing Dynasty realize that the Manchu Qing Dynasty is already at the end of the road, and there is only a dead end to follow the Manchus." And the Holy Kingdom will eventually win the world, so that those Manchu officials and soldiers have to think carefully, especially the local squire officials and others, they have to accept the Holy Kingdom and submit to the Holy Kingdom independently. ”
Feng Yunshan nodded and praised: "What Ji Gao said is extremely reasonable! This king will consider carefully and make a decision! ”
He turned to Fan Ruzeng and said: "Ruzeng, this king asked Zhou Shengkun and his Ministry of Finance and Taxation to allocate another 500,000 taels of silver to your secret service department, and you immediately expand the manpower of your special service department by more than double the number of people, recruit more spies, especially in the Manchu occupied areas and the newly occupied Jiangnan area of the Holy State, absorb and train special agents, and carry out rebellion and persuasion against those Manchu local officials. ”
"In this way, this king will think about it for two days first, and then think of other countermeasures, and implement a policy offensive before the official Northern Expedition."