290 Calm Before the Storm

In June of the 11th year of Chongzhen, the weather became hot and dry, and today Li Zixiao just presided over the first graduation ceremony of the youth camp for Zhao Zilong and other eighteen-year-old teenagers in the eight youth camps.

Of these eight teenagers, three graduated from Wutang and five graduated from Wentang, and Li Zixiao presented them with graduation books written by himself.

The eight youth battalions held their heads high one by one and received the graduation certificates issued to them by Li Zixiao, and they were all very excited.

And the fifteen or sixteen-year-old teenagers in the back also looked at it enviously, and at the same time, they were secretly looking forward to the day they would usher in a few years.

Subsequently, Li Zixiao handed over the five teenagers in Wentang to Qian Guangyuan, and asked them to follow Qian Guangyuan to learn to deal with political affairs and slowly sharpen these teenagers.

These teenagers are all good seedlings, literate and hyphenated, open-minded, and more importantly, they are loyal to Li Zixiao and the White Dragon Army.

After a few years, polish and polish them, and in the future, some of them will inevitably be able to produce some pillars of the country and feudal officials.

After presiding over the graduation ceremony of the youth camp, Li Zixiao learned that Zhang Fugui, the director of the intelligence department he had sent to the north, had returned, so he immediately summoned him.

"Ergou, you've worked this trip, I don't know what I told you to do?"

In the hall of White Snake Village, there are only two people at this time, Li Zixiao and Zhang Fugui, Quartz personally guards the door of the hall, and no one is allowed to enter without Li Zixiao's order.

Zhang Fugui also looked tired, but seeing Li Zixiao's grim face, he said respectfully: "General Qiqi, everything is going well."

In accordance with the general's orders, his subordinates personally went to the Beijing Division, set up a secret liaison office in Miyun, Shuntian Prefecture, and at the same time mobilized several intelligence backbones under him, and initially developed our intelligence personnel there.

At the same time, in accordance with the general's order, I also set up liaison offices in Qian'an, Fengrun, and Tongzhou in Yongping Province, all of which are equipped with flying pigeons, and if something happens, they will fly pigeons to send information back. ”

After listening to Zhang Fugui's answer, Li Zixiao nodded slightly, and finally said in a deep voice: "You have worked hard in the past few months, I will go to the old master to receive a hundred taels of silver later, and go back to reward my brothers."

In addition, don't talk about this matter to anyone, and at the same time let the intelligence officers in these three places cheer up their spirits, and have a little trace of the outer Tartars, and immediately fly south to report.

Go down and rest. Li Zixiao waved his hand and motioned for Zhang Fugui to step back.

"General Xie, my subordinates know, and my subordinates will retire."

"General, are you so sure that this year, the Tartars outside the gate will really go south from these two places to enter the customs? How did the general judge? ”

After Zhang Fugui left, Qian Guangyuan walked out from behind, looked at Li Zixiao with a puzzled expression, and asked puzzledly.

"Hehe, the secret of heaven must not be revealed, Mr. Qian, you just wait and see."

Of course, Li Zixiao will not tell Qian Guangyuan that he can predict the prophet, of course, it is impossible.

But Li Zixiao really knew that in September this year, the Tatars outside the customs would go south in a big way.

The two places that Tatars chose to enter the customs were the wall of Miyun Lingji and the Qingshan Pass of Yongping Mansion.

Dolgon, Yue Tuo and others led the Tartar army to divide into two routes, the two armies moved to An, passed through Fengrun, met in Tongzhou, along the Taihang Mountain and the canal, divided the troops into eight roads, and attacked to the west.

West of Beijing to the boundary of Shanxi, within a thousand miles, mostly wilderness plains, good at galloping Manchu and Mongolian cavalry, thousands of thousands, galloping up like a wind swept the ground.

The Tartar arrows were pointed, and the Ming soldiers were invincible, and the six towns and cities they passed along the way were all plundered.

This is recorded in history, Li Zixiao is also taking precautions at this time, he is worried that if there is any deviation in this life, he doesn't know if the Tartars outside the customs will enter the customs by these two ways.

He needed to know the detailed time when the Tartars outside the customs would enter the customs so that he could make arrangements.

But he only remembered that the Tartars outside the customs entered the customs in September this year, but he couldn't remember the specific time, so he could only use this stupid method.

At this time, there were only three months left before September of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, and at this time, Li Zixiao was also excited. 、

At this time, the Ming Dynasty was still stable, in addition to the large number of displaced people who continued to emerge in the north, the imperial court disaster relief was not effective, resulting in the northern refugees have become disasters.

As for the rebel army, the activities of the rebel army at this time fell into a trough, and many rebels, large and small, were either exterminated by the officers and soldiers of the imperial court, or accepted the edict of the imperial court and became an official army.

Among them, the two largest rebel armies, Zhang Xianzhong, had already returned to the imperial court at this time, and were dormant in Gucheng, recuperating and recuperating, preparing to make a comeback.

And Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, hid in Shangluo Mountain, not daring to come out, facing the continued encirclement and suppression of the imperial court officials and soldiers, and his power shrank sharply.

The imperial court officers and soldiers who have been encircling and suppressing the rebel army for all these years are also exhausted, and at this time they also have a rare opportunity to repair.

In general, compared with the turbulent war in the previous two years, the first half of Chongzhen's eleventh year can be regarded as relatively stable.

But Li Zixiao knew that this was just the calm before the storm.

After another three months, this peace will be broken, and with the entry of the Tartars this year, the process of the fall of the Ming Dynasty has officially begun.

It also made those rebels see the weakness of the Ming Dynasty, and waited until next year when Zhang Xianzhong rebelled again, and Li Zicheng also came out of Shangluo Mountain.

At that time, it also became the last straw that crushed the thin camel of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Zixiao deeply felt a sense of crisis, and he went to the school in person for the past two days to watch the drills of his soldiers, and then went to Baihu Village to see the construction of armor and weapons.

As soon as Li Zixiao arrived at Baihu Village on this day, he saw that Tie Ping was in a hurry and ran to Li Zixiao to complain.

"General, you have to take care of that guy Wu Yao quickly, that guy doesn't know what he's doing in the past few days, there are explosions in his workshop all day long, and something flies out from time to time.

Yesterday it was even more excessive, when an object flew to our ironworks, and it exploded, almost killing some of my craftsmen.

But I still hurt two people, and my subordinates are now trembling every day, and they are not in the mood to work at all, and they are almost scared to death by this guy!

This will seriously affect the production of our blacksmith workshop, and if you don't come today, General, I will personally go to you to report this problem. ”

Li Zixiao saw Tie Pingliang so angry, and he was stunned, and he didn't know what Wu Yao had done to anger and resentment morale.

So he asked Tie Pingliang what was going on, and Tie Pingliang told Li Zixiao in detail, and Li Zixiao figured out what was going on.

It turned out that Wu Yao didn't know what new things he was tinkering with on this day, and yesterday the blacksmith workshop was working normally, and suddenly an object flew from the sky.

Immediately flew into the blacksmith's workshop, and before the big guy could figure out what was happening, the object that fell from the sky exploded with a 'boom'.

As a result, the two blacksmiths who were slightly closer were injured on the spot, but fortunately the two were not too close, otherwise, they might have been killed on the spot.

At this time, Wu Yao also ran over from a distance in a panic.

As soon as he saw Tie Pingliang and Li Zixiao standing together, especially Tie Pingliang looking at him as if he was about to kill someone, he knew that Tie Pingliang had already reported the matter to Li Zixiao.

Wu Yao, who knew that he was in the wrong, quickly apologized to Tie Pingliang, and at the same time pleaded guilty to Li Zixiao.

Li Zixiao asked Wu Yao, "What are you researching?" Why so careless? Fortunately, only two people were injured, and if it happened to fall into the crowd, it would be up to you to explain it! ”

Li Zixiao also knew the nature of Wu Yao's work, which must be something inseparable from gunpowder, and scolded with a gloomy face.

Wu Yao looked ashamed and said to Li Zixiao: "Damn it, my subordinates are too careless, and my subordinates will not dare to test shoot this kind of thing in the village in the future."

The subordinates promised that this kind of thing would not happen again, and hoped that the general would forgive the sins, and also ask the blacksmith head to forgive, and the subordinates were willing to compensate the two injured blacksmiths! ”

Li Zixiao was also very satisfied with Wu Yao's sincere apology, and at the same time, he was more curious about what new things Wu Yao was tinkering with, but he didn't rush to ask.

Instead, he turned his face to Tie Pingliang first and said, "Let those two injured blacksmiths rest well, and their treatment costs will be paid by Wu Yao."

At the same time, each of them was given three taels of silver as compensation, and their wages for the period of recuperation were paid, is this feasible? ”

Tie Pingliang glared at Wu Yao, and hurriedly said to Li Zixiao: "My subordinates thank the general for my two subordinates."

The two brothers were not seriously injured, they were all lightly injured, and the village doctor bandaged them, and I also took them to thank the general for his care! ”

After receiving a satisfactory answer, Tie Pingliang left, the work of the blacksmith's workshop was very busy, and he couldn't do without him for too long.

After Tie Pingliang left, Li Zixiao asked Wu Yao, who was kneeling on the ground, to get up and asked him, "What are you doing, you are so powerful?" They all flew to the blacksmith's workshop, and there was a long way between you. ”

After Wu Yao got up, he touched his head and smiled, and said to Li Zixiao: "It's not a few months ago, inspired by the general, I recently wanted to make a 'Divine Fire Flying Crow' similar to the one in the hands of the official army.

During this time, his subordinates had a sudden inspiration and began to tinker with this thing, and now they have made a few, and they couldn't help but try to put one yesterday.

It didn't seem to be very successful, and when he flew, his tail fell off, he lost his balance, and flew to the blacksmith's workshop, almost scaring his subordinates to death. ”

Li Zixiao was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately got up and said, "Oh? Did you really get it? Let's go, let's see! Ha ha! ”

With that, Li Zixiao pulled Wu Yao and ran to his gunpowder shop.

Wu Yao took out a guy from the house and put it in front of Li Zixiao, Li Zixiao was happy when he saw it, isn't this thing exactly the rocket he described to Wu Yao before!

I saw that this thing was about thirteen or fourteen centimeters thick and eighty or ninety centimeters long, and the barrel shell was wooden.

At the front end was a round iron guy with three tail fins on his body, and the whole thing was a clay rocket.

Li Zixiao immediately asked Wu Yao: "Then have you tried it, how far can this thing fly?" How powerful was the explosion? ”

Wu Yao replied ashamedly: "I've tried two, and the farthest one flew about a mile, and it didn't explode when it fell."

The other flew not close, and exploded, and fell to the blacksmith's workshop.

And the subordinates found one problem after another, when this thing was lit, if it didn't fly if it didn't fly, it would explode on the spot, because of this, the subordinates were almost not killed.

Sometimes, even if it flies, it will catch fire in mid-air, and it will not meet the requirements of the general at all, and it is the incompetence of his subordinates. ”

Li Zixiao also felt a little regretful when he heard Wu Yao say this, he really hoped that Wu Yao could build the earliest rocket in this era.

Li Zixiao thought about it carefully and knew what the problem was.

The earth rocket created by Wu Yao uses a wooden shell, and after ignition, the temperature of the tail flame spewed out should be very high, and the wood will definitely catch fire.

And the charge of gunpowder in the rocket is also very knowledgeable, don't look at the fire is no problem.

But with so many charges, if you are not careful, you will explode.

Therefore, if you want to make a big rocket with black powder, with the current technology, it is still a bit insufficient, and its safety cannot be guaranteed in terms of materials.

Although there is no problem with the idea, it is still very difficult to operate in practice.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Wanhu wanted to use rockets to push themselves into the sky, but the rocket exploded and died on the spot.

Li Zixiao shook his head with a wry smile and said, "Okay, since you failed, don't do it again, it's too dangerous, you can't have an accident."

This thing is not yet ripe, so let's wait for the opportunity to tinker with it later.

Now the key is to make a large amount of gunpowder, as much as possible to reserve gunpowder, in case of emergency, at present, our White Dragon Army is relying more and more on the amount of gunpowder.

You can't have a problem here, I don't want to see that in wartime, my bird's guns don't have gunpowder available, and then their bird's guns are not as good as a burning stick! ”

Wu Yao was also a little unwilling, but Li Zixiao had spoken, and he had no choice but to nod and agree.

And told Li Zixiao that gunpowder was not a problem, they had already stockpiled tens of thousands of catties of gunpowder, which was enough for the White Dragon Army for a period of time.

As long as there is no shortage of gunpowder, Li Zixiao will be relieved, the amount of firearms and equipment of the White Dragon Army is getting bigger and bigger, what can be short, gunpowder can't be broken.

Once the supply of gunpowder is cut off, it will be a disaster for the White Dragon Army.

Of course, Wu Yao hasn't been studying rockets all these days, that thing is just something he made on a whim.

During this time, the gunpowder workshop presided over by Wu Yao, under the inspiration of Li Zixiao, had produced more than 150,000 rounds of paper shell bullets for the White Dragon Army.

There are also nearly 1,000 projectiles used in various artillery, and in addition to more than 2,000 paper mines, all of which were ordered by Li Zixiao to be stockpiled.

Even, Li Zixiao has ordered the elimination of those old-fashioned bird guns in the army, so that the bird guns are equipped with a large number of new bird guns.

However, Li Zixiao did not waste those old-style bird guns, but left them for the new bird guns in the army to use quickly.

And because there was a lot of ammunition in paper shells, Li Zixiao ordered his subordinates to use the old-fashioned bird guns for live shooting.

In the end, paper mines are only emergency objects, and there are problems of susceptibility to moisture and insufficient power.

During this time, according to Li Zixiao's request, Tie Pingliang's blacksmith workshop, according to the graphics and weight requirements given by Li Zixiao, tried to cast a batch of iron thunder shells for Wu Yao's side.

In addition, the quality of the granular gunpowder on Wu Yao's side has also been steadily improved, and the weight of the loaded iron mine is less than a catty, which can fully meet the needs of soldiers and throwing by hand.

Moreover, the explosive power of this iron-shelled mine is much greater than that of those paper mines, and the lethality has increased at least several times, which makes Li Zixiao very satisfied.