790 mini gun, conquest of the Japanese kingdom

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After Li Zixiao returned to Kaifeng, he ordered the construction of a third arsenal outside Kaifeng.

The first two arsenals, one was located in Xuzhou and the other was moved to Yangzhou, so Li Zixiao decided to build the third arsenal in Kaifeng to house the 500 craftsmen and thousands of apprentices transferred by the imperial court.

At the end of December, Chongzhen finally did not break his promise, and mobilized 500 craftsmen and thousands of apprentices from the capital and Jinling, and moved to Kaifeng together with their families.

It just so happened that when there was a month, Han Lushan also gathered tens of thousands of young people to build an arsenal in the west of Kaifeng City.

After these 500 craftsmen and apprentices arrived in Kaifeng, Li Zixiao temporarily placed them here.

Subsequently, Li Zixiao transferred Sun Tong and more than a dozen experienced arsenal officials from Xuzhou and Yangzhou to put them in charge of the newly built arsenal.

And more than 30 experienced master craftsmen, come to teach these new craftsmen, new casting techniques.

Li Zixiao divided the five hundred craftsmen into two, and the three hundred craftsmen and six hundred apprentices belonged to the military, who were responsible for building armor and guns.

The other 200 craftsmen and 400 apprentices were assigned to the Folk Craftsmen District, where they were responsible for researching and crafting civilian tools.

At the end of December, Li Zixiao rushed to Xuzhou No. 1 Arsenal to inspect, which he first established and is now mainly responsible for by Tie Pingliang.

"Master Tie, you sent a message to Ben Hou saying that the new musket has been successfully developed?"

When Li Zixiao rushed to the First Arsenal, he was greeted by Tie Pingliang and asked Tie Pingliang directly.

"Yes, Hou Ye, according to the ideas that Hou Ye gave us. With a few masters, his subordinates spent nearly half a year constantly experimenting and improving, and finally created the new muskets and bullets that Hou Ye said. ”

Tie Pingliang said with a smile on his face.

"Yes, let's go, take Ben Hou to see it."

Li Zixiao was a little impatient, greeted Tie Pingliang, and strode towards the arsenal.

Upon entering the arsenal, the clanging of iron could be heard everywhere, as well as the shouting of shouts, the roar of the master scolding the apprentices, and the sound of arguing and arguing among the craftsmen.

Tie Pingliang led Li Zixiao to the innermost, a separate courtyard surrounded by a wall, which belonged to his separate research institute.

There are only a few separate research institutes like this in the First Arsenal, which are only used by those craftsmen and masters, so that they can be better kept secret.

There are even soldiers standing guard at the entrance of the courtyard, and no one is allowed to approach here without a warrant.

Of course, now that Tie Pingliang personally took Li Zixiao, they successfully entered this research institute.

Tie Pingliang rushed into his room excitedly, and then rushed out with a long-pole rifle and handed the gun to Li Zixiao.

"Master Hou, you see, this is the new type of musket we have developed, this is the bullet.

We experimented with this new musket and the new bullets to work better than the flintlock pistol. ”

Tie Pingliang said a little ostentatiously.

Li Zixiao took the new-style musket handed over by Tie Pingliang, with a smile on his face.

The new musket they developed was the Mini rifle, as well as the special Mini bullet, which was also the third-generation musket prepared by Li Zixiao for the White Dragon Army.

The first generation of muskets of the White Dragon Army is a modified Ming Dynasty bird gun, and the second generation of muskets is a flintlock pistol.

And the flintlock pistol was used by the White Dragon Army for several years, and secrecy has long been non-existent.

At this time, both Tartar and Ming Ting had already obtained flintlock pistols, and Li Zixiao got the information, and they had already begun to manufacture them on a large scale.

In this way, if the White Dragon Army wants to continue to maintain its superiority in firepower, it must be equipped with more advanced muskets.

Li Zixiao had already explained this to Tie Pingliang after the flintlock pistol was developed.

And now, Tie Pingliang finally did not disappoint him, and spent a lot of time and money to finally get the Mini rifle and Mini bullet out.

"Let's go, let's try the gun."

Li Zixiao was very happy, carrying the Mini rifle in his hand, shouted to Tie Pingliang and the others, and then walked towards the shooting range.

Bang bang bang!

Immediately, a burst of gunfire rang out on the shooting range.

"Haha, yes, it seems that the range is longer than the flintlock pistol, and the reloading of bullets is faster and easier, which increases the rate of fire.

The chamber is better sealed, so it's safer, it's good, it's good! ”

After Li Zixiao fired a few shots to test, he said appreciatively.

"Hou Ye is right, this new musket is stronger than the flintlock pistol in terms of range and rate of fire, and it is also safer."

Tie Pingliang was also very happy to see that Li Zixiao was very satisfied with this new musket, and added.

"When will it be ready for mass production?"

Li Zixiao turned his head, looked at Tie Pingliang, and asked the question he was most concerned about.

"Back to the Hou Ye, the process of making this new type of musket does not need to be much troublesome with a flintlock pistol, we can improve it slightly.

In other words, as long as the subordinates are given a week, the subordinates can replace all the original flintlock pistol production lines with this new musket. ”

"yes, that's fast! In this way, you will keep one line of flintlock pistols on your side, and replace all the other lines with this new type of musket.

In addition, when the arsenal on the Kaifeng side is properly arranged, you will also go over, and in the future, the production of this new type of musket will all be moved to the Kaifeng side. ”

Li Zixiao thought about it and said to Tie Pingliang.

"Yes, Master Hou, my subordinates know.

In addition, Hou Ye, this new musket does not have a name yet, I hope Hou Ye can name it. ”

Tie Pingliang said.

"Haha, this is easy to say, since you took the lead in developing this new musket, let's call it the 'Tie' musket!"

"Master Xie, my subordinates don't dare to be it!"

Hearing that Li Zixiao directly used his surname to name this new musket, Tie Pingliang immediately knelt down and saluted excitedly, which was a great honor.

Several old craftsmen and masters who followed behind, after hearing Li Zixiao say this, also widened their eyes one by one, looking at Tie Pingliang with some envy.

At the same time, they are also thinking in their hearts that if they can also use their surname and first name to name a weapon or tool in the future, it is simply their dream.

"Alright, get up. Ben Hou said so, and it was decided, this kind of musket is called the 'Tie' musket, and you deserve it. ”

Li Zixiao picked up Tie Pingliang, who was kneeling, and said undoubtedly.

"Master Xie."

Hearing Li Zixiao's firm tone, Tie Pingliang no longer shirked, and his heart blossomed.

At this time, Li Zixiao also looked at several other craftsmen behind him, knowing that these people were all carefully selected by Tie Pingliang, and they all had unique skills in their hands.

Immediately, Li Zixiao said: "In the future, we will also set a rule, as long as anyone can develop new weapons and tools, they will be approved."

He can name it himself, and then submit it to the government for approval. ”

"Thank you, Master Hou, Master Hou is wise."

After Li Zixiao finished speaking, the craftsmen and masters behind him suddenly became excited and saluted and shouted at Li Zixiao.

"In addition, this time to develop a new type of musket, all the masters have also worked hard.

After Benhou returns to Kaifeng, he will ask the government to allocate a reward of 3,000 taels to you, and hand it over to Tie Pingliang, so that he can distribute it to you according to his merits.

Ben Hou also hopes that the masters of the First Arsenal can continue to work hard to develop more advanced and reliable weapons and tools. ”

Li Zixiao smiled and continued.

"Master Xie, my subordinates and I will continue to work hard."

After hearing this, all the craftsmen were overjoyed and shouted in unison.

Three thousand taels of silver is a lot, although Tie Pingliang will definitely take the lion's share, but the rest will be distributed to them, and each person will get at least two or three hundred taels of silver.

If this had been placed in the past, when they worked for the imperial court, they had not earned so much silver for more than ten years.

Suddenly, these craftsmen and masters were excited and energetic at the same time.

Li Zixiao immediately returned to Kaifeng, although the performance of the Mini gun was better than that of the flintlock pistol, but in a short time, he could not change the equipment of his White Dragon musketeers.

It's just that before Li Zixiao sent troops to the Japanese country this time, it was impossible to complete the costume change.

That's right, after Li Zixiao returned to Kaifeng at the end of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, he gathered 5,000 soldiers of the White Dragon Army and set off for Haizhou after the New Year.

A week later, Li Zixiao took Li Tianba, Peng Hao and other generals of the White Dragon Army to board a group of recruited merchant ships in Haizhou Port, and then quickly arrived on Tamna Island under the escort of a fleet of the navy.

At that time, the five thousand White Dragon soldiers led by Luo Chao and Zilong had already arrived on Tamluo Island from Dengzhou more than half a month ago, and they were waiting for Li Zixiao here.

At the same time, during the month of December, Li Zixiao ordered people to transport a large amount of grain, weapons and ammunition from Haizhou Port to Tamna Island, and stored them on Tamna Island.

After Li Zixiao led his army to land in the Wa Kingdom, Hong Sheng would lead a fleet of the Navy to blockade the waters west of the Wa Kingdom.

At the same time, Tamna Island will also become the logistics supply depot for Li Zixiao's expedition to the Japanese Kingdom this time.

On January 6, the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, a large number of ships, most of them merchant ships, appeared outside the port of Nagasaki on the west side of Kyushu Island in the Wakoku Kingdom.

I don't know and think that these are Ming merchants who went to Nagasaki to do business, but in fact, this time these merchant ships were not loaded with goods, but a team of soldiers of the White Dragon Army.

Immediately, 10,000 soldiers of the White Dragon Army took advantage of the night to quietly land in Nagasaki Port.

At this time, the port of Nagasaki was in the hands of the rebels of Shuichiro Yoshino, and relying on the support that Li Zixiao constantly sent to Yoshino, he really let him hold this large port.

"It's coming!"

Shuiichiro Yoshino and a group of his soldiers stood on the pier, looking at the fleet that appeared on the sea in the distance, and said excitedly.

Next to him, there were also several generals wearing the armor of the White Dragon Army, which were several White Dragon Military Captains sent by Li Zixiao a long time ago to help Shuichiro Yoshino.

said to be helping Shuiichiro Yoshino, but in fact, it also means surveillance.

Shuiichiro Yoshino also knew this, but he couldn't refuse, and he couldn't.

Standing next to Shuiichiro Yoshino was a young man named Chen Gong, who had been here for almost half a year with nine grassroots officers of the White Dragon Army.

"Hmm."

At this time, Chen Gong was also very excited and nodded in response.

A moment later, so many merchant ships docked at the dock, and Li Zixiao, under the protection of a group of soldiers of the White Dragon Army, quickly left the side of the ship and set foot on the land of the Japanese country.

"Shuiichiro Yoshino, you've been making a name for yourself lately."

After Li Zixiao boarded the dock, he saw Shuiichiro Yoshino and others standing in the distance, and took the initiative to send someone over to say hello.

"Hey! His subordinate Yoshino visited Hou Ye, and Hou Ye was Chitose Chitose. ”

Shuiichiro Yoshino took the initiative to kneel on one knee, knelt in front of Li Zixiao, and shouted loudly.

When Yoshino Shuiichiro knelt like this, the Japanese generals who followed behind him, but many of them hesitated, not wanting to kneel and salute him.

"Okay, don't be polite, let's go into the city first."

Immediately, Shuiichiro Yoshino took Li Zixiao and others into Nagasaki City.

Compared to the late night outside, there are still many people busy at the port docks, and Nagasaki Castle has already been completely controlled by Shuiichiro Yoshino.

But at this time, Li Zixiao looked at the Nagasaki City in his eyes, which made Li Zixiao stunned, but he didn't expect that Nagasaki City was a small county town compared to the city walls of Daming!

"Shuiichiro Yoshino, we haven't seen each other for the past two years, how many people and family property do you have now?"

After arriving in the city, Li Zixiao sat on the first seat, and on the left and right sides sat Yoshino and Luo Chao and others.

After hearing Li Zixiao's inquiry, Yoshino Shuiichiro raised his head and said in a deep voice: "Back to the Hou Ye, his subordinates are now in control of Nagasaki, along with the six villages around Nagasaki.

There are more than 8,000 men and horses, including more than 3,000 gunners and more than 40 large and small artillery. ”

"Well, I asked you to pull up a small team, but the strength is still too weak, and it can't even solve a single feudal town."

Li Zixiao said very casually.

When Yoshino Shuiichiro heard this, his face showed bitterness, and he said, "Master Hou, you don't know anything. In the feudal town near Nagasaki, it was the Hida Domain.

The strength of the Hita Domain is not weak, with more than 30,000 troops under his command, and the current lord of the domain is Nabeshima Katsushige, but at this time Nabeshima Katsushige is very old, and the main affairs are in charge of his eldest grandson Nabeshima Mitsushige.

After the subordinates seized Nagasaki, the Nabeshima family had already organized three attacks, but fortunately, they were all beaten back by their subordinates.

This is thanks to the large amount of assistance sent by Hou Ye to his subordinates, among which firearms, artillery and iron-clad mines are the best ones. ”

"Well, you've done a good job."

After hearing Shuichiro Yoshino's complaints, Li Zixiao nodded and said in appreciation.

"Yoshino, do you think the Nabeshima family will send people to attack you again?"

Li Zixiao suddenly became interested and asked Shuichiro Yoshino.

"Of course, Master Hou, that's for sure.

Did you know that Nabeshima Katsushige, the lord of the Hida Domain, was served by the Nagasaki Imperial Domain, and Nagasaki Castle has always been controlled by the Hida Domain.

Since the Tokugawa shogunate designated Nagasaki as a foreign trade port, Nagasaki had a huge annual income, so how could the Hita Domain give up Nagasaki!

The subordinates have received definite information that in three days, the Nabeshima family will gather more than 20,000 troops to attack us again.

If you don't come yet, my subordinates may not be able to withstand it this time! ”

Shuiichiro Yoshino smiled wryly and said to Li Zixiao.

"Yes, doesn't that mean that Ben Hou came at the right time." Li Zixiao smiled slightly and said.

(End of chapter)