Dominate the Country

[This chapter is 4000+, today's two chapters are 9000+, isn't that good enough? ]

Beijing, Jingshan.

The cannons in the cannon factory rumbled, this is the test. The current military minister, the first-class loyal and brave Duke, Fu Cha Fu Heng, came to supervise in person today. The requirement is to be better than the last test.

Since the development of firearms in the Qing Dynasty reached its peak in the middle of the Kangxi Dynasty, the level of gun and cannon manufacturing in the Qing Dynasty has been gradually declining in the following fifty or sixty years, especially in the casting process of cannons. The scrap rate of a batch of new cannons produced by the Jingshan Cannon Factory was very high. There is no way, there are not enough, the craftsmen can't make good cannons even if they flip through the text books left by their ancestors. Things change, who would have thought that the world would be so chaotic in the 32nd and 33rd year of the Qianlong Dynasty?

The troubled times are the time when the artillery factories prosper. In the 33rd year of the Qianlong Dynasty, the three artillery factories in Beijing City regained their vitality.

There was no way. The Fu Han Army had too much advantage in artillery fire and the fortifications were too strong. The Qing army lacked heavy artillery that could open up the situation on many battlefields.

And what about the Fu Han Army? Whether it was the headquarters of the General's Mansion, which was guarding the old nest and had no shortage of coal and iron, or Chen Ming's troops who were on an expedition and sweeping the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, they were all firing various types of artillery at a rapid speed. For example, in Chen Ming's place, the copper cannons, iron cannons, iron materials, copperware, swords and guns, and even a large number of copper coins seized by the Qing army along the way became the capital for the Fu Han Army to cast cannons. The number of bronze cannons in Chen Ming's hands was almost comparable to that of iron cannons. This made the Manchu Qing very passive, but they could only bite the bullet and keep up.

The Manchu Qing's firearms manufacturing began in the fifth year of Tiancong in the Later Jin Dynasty (1631). In the early and middle period of Kangxi, frequent wars and huge external pressure forced the Qing court to attach great importance to the manufacture and development of firearms. Whether it was in the suppression of the Three Feudatories, the destruction of Zheng Ming, or the three expeditions against Galdan, the Qing army had cannons everywhere. The scale, quality, and craftsmanship of its firearms reached the peak of the development of ancient Chinese firearms, and some firearms were also at an advanced level in the world at that time. This is thanks to Tang Ruowang and Nan Huairen - the credit is not all theirs, but part of the credit is definitely theirs. Of course, there is also the great talent of Dai Zi!

With the stability of the Qing Dynasty in the Central Plains in the middle and late period of Kangxi, the major hidden dangers gradually disappeared. In the war with Northwest Mongolia, as the Qing army switched from defense to offense, heavy artillery gradually retreated to a secondary position. The vast northwest was not suitable for the Qing army to move slowly with heavy cannons to intercept the Mongolian cavalry. By the time of the Qianlong Dynasty, no matter how "perfect" Qianlong's martial arts were, the Qing Dynasty's rule in China was already deeply rooted. The Central Plains was peaceful and the country had been at peace for a long time, so the development of military equipment became more lax, the development of firearms gradually stagnated, and the quality of guns and cannons was very worrying.

If history does not change, such corruption and decline will continue for a hundred years until China is completely sunk into the abyss.

But in this time and space, Chen Ming's travel caused the long river of history to flow into another fork. A thunderclap sounded in the Central Plains, and the Fu Han Army rose up in southwest Henan and the heartland of the Central Plains at a dizzying speed. When the Qing soldiers were beaten by the Fu Han Army and fled, and when the Qing soldiers were beaten and bleeding in front of the Fu Han Army's solid defense, the Qing Dynasty's long-slack gun and cannon manufacturing had to be re-valued by Emperor Qianlong. Because more and more battle reports of the Qing army mentioned the sharp guns and swords and armor of the Fu Han army.

Emperor Qianlong would not give armor to the Green Camp. With the current manufacturing capacity of the Qing Dynasty, it would be difficult to give armor to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of Green Camp on the battlefield in a short period of time. Qianlong is more concerned about guns and cannons! This is a technical job, which requires skills and experience accumulation, but how could the court lose to a bunch of rioters?

When Wu Dashan was blocked on the north road, when the Green Camp of Jingqi, Shandong, and Zhili was blocked on the east line, and when thousands of Northeastern and Mongolian cavalry could not break through the seemingly simple defense line of the Fu Han army, Qianlong in the deep palace initially deeply doubted the authenticity of the battle report. He looked at Aligun with a ferocious look. He severely rebuked the frontline generals for their cowardly emotions and severely reprimanded Aligun, who was supervising the battle. However, he also sent people to secretly investigate the war on the front line. As a result, he found that the words in the memorials submitted by the frontline generals were not fabricated. They could not be said to be all true, but they were mostly true.

And this was the biggest bad news for Qianlong!

And the increasingly active "sharpshooters" in the Fu Han Army made the senior generals of the Qing Army dare not show up on the front line easily. Those leading generals also put the safety line 150 feet away.

The Qing court could only develop guns and cannons, especially cannons, which were no longer for suppressing bandits and riots, but for rebuilding the world.

The prosperous era of Qianlong was gone forever. Whether it was the Fu Han Army, the Hunyuan Doctrine Army that spread to Shandong, or the millions of refugees in Anhui and Henan, Qianlong bravely faced all of this, and he had to admit that his prosperous era had ended. In the history books and writings of later generations, he is likely to be compared with Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, as both dynasties were in decline.

Under Qianlong's nose, there were three artillery factories in and around Beijing. After Nan Huairen, the Qing Dynasty established artillery factories in the Yangxin Hall, Jingshan and Tiejiangying in the Forbidden City, specializing in making guns and cannons for the royal family and the Eight Banners. Among the three, the Jingshan Artillery Factory was the most outstanding.

Jingshan Artillery Factory, which had received the order from Emperor Qianlong at the end of last year, did not dare to slack off. Regardless of the fact that the clay molds were not easy to dry in the shade during the winter, they quickly put together more than a hundred tools. When the cannons were officially cast in the spring, hundreds of clay molds were formed and more than ninety cannons were cast, but not even twenty were truly qualified. No wonder Nan Huairen spent more than ten years in Beijing before casting more than 500 large and small artillery pieces. The limitations of this clay mold are too great.

Although this clay mold was dried in the sun before the cannon was cast, there was still moisture in it and it was difficult to completely remove it. When molten iron is poured into the cannon, the high temperature will inevitably turn the water into water vapor, and then the water vapor will enter the iron, causing the cast cannon to have a honeycomb appearance in the bore. Such a cannon is easy to explode. Therefore, in order to reduce the possibility of bombing of the Qing army's artillery, the walls of the artillery were usually thickened when casting the artillery. In this way, for artillery of the same weight, the Qing army's artillery has thick walls and small bullet holes, and its power is far less.

Moreover, another characteristic of clay mold cannon-making is that it can be used once. After each clay mold is cast, the clay mold is smashed and the gun barrel is taken out. There is no possibility of reuse. This not only takes a long time to complete, but also causes casting problems. The cannons had different calibers, making it impossible to produce artillery shells on a large scale.

It can be said that the Fuhan Army's iron mold cannon casting method, even if there are certain quality defects, is an epoch-making progress compared with clay molds.

It is impossible to say that the Manchu cannon-making officials and craftsmen did not know the disadvantages of clay molds. However, they were already accustomed to clay molds, which were used for making cannons for granted, and they never thought of improving the technology.

Jingshan Artillery Factory began to focus on artillery casting at the end of last year, and so far, it has only produced two batches. The first batch of these two batches of casting was more than ninety guns, and the second batch was more than a hundred guns. However, only a very small part of the first batch of new cannons could successfully pass the test.

Today, for the test of the second batch of new cannons, Fu Heng personally visited the Jingshan Cannon Factory. These cannons must be transported to the battlefield immediately. The top management of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties are particularly concerned about the quality of the cannons. Those cannons that were used indiscriminately and many new cannons that could pass the test in the past have now been neatly classified as useless cannons. The large general cannons in the venue were majestic and majestic, and the polished barrels shone with a frightening cold light under the eyes. The thick muzzle points diagonally towards the sky. These are all sharp weapons.

Fu Heng paid more attention to General Wucheng Yonggu's cannon. Among the more than 130 cannons tested this time, there were only twelve General Cheng Yonggu cannons. This cannon, produced under the supervision of Nan Huairen, is one of the best cannons in the history of Manchu and Qing firearms.

The cannon is made of copper, weighing five thousand kilograms. The front is folded and the back is slightly plump. The bottom is like a bamboo knot. The medicine is five kilograms. The pig iron cannon is ten kilograms. The star is six and three centimeters high.

"Master Zhongtang..."

"Continue!" Fu Heng's face was as cold as ice.

…

For a whole day, the sound of cannons in Jingshan was heard in the distance. When Fu Heng left Jingshan at dusk and rushed to the palace, his ears were buzzing.

When Fu Heng saw Qianlong in the Yangxin Hall, Qianlong was playing with a Shixi flower-bore gun. This is a Shixi flower-bore gun, a rifled gun, and a flintlock rifle that has been improved on the original basis, so it is now a flintlock rifled gun with the world's advanced level. The barrel and the butt are still connected with four iron hoops. Because the emperor no longer used them, the gold and silver hoops became iron hoops. The exquisite carvings on the front and back are no longer there, but there is still brass left on the rear of the barrel. With the word 'hi', the gun butt is a simple jujube wood butt.

Qianlong's ability and courage are not comparable to those of later generations, Daoguang and Xianfeng. After realizing the importance of guns, he decisively restarted the Qing Dynasty's gun manufacturing process. Chen Ming may not have known that some Eight Banners soldiers in the Qing Dynasty's firearms camp had already acquired flintlock shotguns.

Qianlong was not the incompetent person like Daoguang. After receiving a fat beating, he just stuck his head in the sand and became an ostrich. Qianlong's choice was to face the difficulties head-on and rise to the occasion.

If the imperial court currently has insufficient cannons, it would seize the opportunity to cast cannons, and let local officials also cast cannons; if the performance of the shotguns is too poor, then it would improve the shotguns and improve their performance. For Qianlong, he was already aware of his shortcomings in certain aspects and did not correct them. That would be a fool.

"... One hundred and thirty-six new cannons, only 20% of them are suitable for use. It takes a long time to dispose of the cannons, which is a dilemma for them."

The Shixi flower-bored gun in Qianlong's hand had been placed on the case. He was pacing back and forth in the room, and the little joy on his face had completely disappeared.

cannon! Cannons are the key. For the Qing army, artillery was much more important than muskets. However, it was really difficult for the Manchus to ensure the quality of cannons and increase the production of cannons.

"The Holy Ancestor made more than 900 cannons in the forty-five years of his reign, of which Nan Huairen cast nearly 600 cannons in more than ten years. Although Westerners do not respect their ancestors and have no laws, they still have merit. of."

Qianlong wanted to follow Kang Mazi's old path and invite foreign missionaries to take charge of cannon casting. This was an idea he had when the first batch of cannons at the Jingshan Artillery Factory had a usability rate of less than 20%. Subsequently, the new cannons from the Administrative Office and the Blacksmith Camp Artillery Factory also had a very low usability rate, which made Qianlong's heart even more The idea has grown stronger.

The three artillery factories in Beijing are the most technologically advanced in the Qing Dynasty. They are in such a difficult situation here, so the effectiveness of casting cannons in the local area can be imagined. The national situation is getting worse and worse, and Qianlong urgently needs a large number of heavy artillery to be put into various battlefields. He has secretly ordered Guangdong to purchase artillery from Westerners, but making it by himself is the key to solving the problem. The idea in his mind is getting bigger and stronger.

"Nan Huairen and Tang Ruowang handled the gun and artillery affairs, and the Qing Dynasty benefited a lot. Let their names be recorded in history books for their descendants to cherish. This is the wisdom of Emperor Shengzu. Those Westerners have no father and no king, and they regard teaching as heaven, which is ridiculous. But they have studied strange and lewd techniques, which is quite remarkable. "Fu Heng is worthy of being the brother-in-law who has been in harmony with someone for 20 to 30 years. As soon as Qianlong opened his mouth, Fu Heng had figured out what he meant in his heart.

Qianlong nodded in satisfaction. Fuheng was not only his brother-in-law, but also the leading minister of his military office. The two of them had known each other for decades, and they knew each other's thoughts very well. He was indeed a good servant. Fuheng had understood Qianlong's words.

Qianlong looked at Fuheng's retreating figure. He believed that after a few days of brewing, there would be a steady stream of memorials that met his wishes. At that time, he would just go with the flow.

But..., the prosperous era suddenly became so dangerous, "It's all Lushan Chen's rebellion!" Qianlong stomped his feet fiercely.

If there hadn't been a big turmoil, how could the artillery factory appear so unpromising? He actually let this rich man bow to a group of missionaries who had no monarch, father or ancestors. In the eyes of Emperor Qianlong, the situation forced him to ask missionaries to intervene in the work of the Qing court artillery factory, which was to bow to the missionaries. This hurt his self-esteem and made him embarrassed.

There was also an urgent report from Shandong Governor Fu Nihan, saying that the Hunyuan religious bandit army that entered southwest Shandong from Xuzhou was divided into three groups, with three big flags of Liu, Yang and Fan, and led by three bandit chiefs, they entered the mountains and ridges of southwest Shandong. Not only did they force the pursuers to split up and pursue, but they also seemed to be very familiar with the geographical terrain of southwest Shandong, and they came out from unexpected places and frequently attacked the prefectures in southwest Shandong, especially Jining. They attacked the Grand Canal. The Qing army in Shandong was in a state of panic, and the Qing army from the battlefield in Henan was hurriedly transferred back to the center by Aligun, and Fu Nihan urgently asked for reinforcements.

"They are all useless, incompetent, incompetent!"

Qianlong was so angry that he didn't want to eat dinner. Even the most favored concubine in the inner palace, Wei Jia, didn't make Qianlong smile.