Chapter 1648: The Third Army of Ren Zijuan (1)

After Yan Mingxiang was sent away, Jia Yucun fell into deep thought.

Tang Binyin, Gu Tianjun, Zhu Guozhen and Zhen Yingjia took turns coming to him to lobby for him to join their camp. Although their words were very subtle and euphemistic, Jia Yucun had been immersed in the political arena for so many years, especially when he was in the political arena. The bumpy years in Jinling Mansion have given him considerable experience.

As long as he agrees, he believes that the other party will definitely follow up with follow-up clauses, and step by step they will make you fall into their trap, making you unable to extricate yourself, and eventually become one of them.

It's not impossible to become one of them, but you have to come up with something that convinces yourself, and you have to come up with the foundation to become a king.

At least until now, Jia Yucun has not seen how obvious the advantage of Prince Yi Zhong is. The Xuanfu Army and Denglai Army are still too weak compared to other towns in Jiubian. Although Jiangnan is where the money and food of the North are, but you The only thing that needs to be controlled is Jiangnan. When the nine-sided army really attacks, will these Jiangnan gentry and merchants persist as always?

Jia Yucun was very skeptical.

He himself is a Jiangnan scholar, and most of his colleagues of the same age around him are also Jiangnan gentry. He knows the character of these people very well. How many of them can really be strong-willed and strong-willed?

In Jia Yucun's view, as long as the emperor is still there, Prince Yi Zhong has little hope of overturning the throne, and even the support of the emperor is of little use.

As for separatist rule in the south of the Yangtze River and governance across the river, that is even more unrealistic. The imperial court will never allow this situation to exist. If you want to threaten Jiangnan and Huguang with money and food, it will only increase the determination and rise of the Northland to completely attack. There is no Jiangnan and Huguang are like water without a source and a tree without roots. No one will tolerate this situation.

Of course, that doesn’t mean there is no chance.

If Prince Yoshitaka ruled from the south of the Yangtze River and could withstand the imperial court's attack, or successfully delayed the imperial army from moving south, it would only take a few months, but it would be possible for the Northern Territory to collapse.

In addition, Prince Yitada is also the son of the Supreme Emperor, and he was the crown prince for twenty years, so it is not impossible for him to be restored to the throne, but it depends on the outcome of the situation in the capital, the ministers in the court and the nine sides. The strength of the military's support for both sides.

For now, the emperor absolutely firmly holds the initiative, and there is no possibility of Prince Yoshitaka making a comeback.

Feng Ziying also vaguely mentioned this in her letter, but it was quite vague and implicit. However, Jia Yucun understood the meaning. Feng Ziying was not optimistic about Prince Yizhong, which was the same as Jia Yucun's attitude.

Of course, Jia Yucun also knew that Feng Ziying could only stand on the side of the imperial court. With Prince Yi Zhong's current friendly attitude towards Jiangnan, if Prince Yi Zhong really takes the throne, the scholars in the North will be suppressed now, and the status of Jiangnan scholars will definitely be dominated by one family. , by then Feng Ziying's rising momentum will inevitably be interrupted, and the new dynasty will not be able to give Feng Ziying a better opportunity than now.

This is an attitude based on their respective positions, but as a Jiangnan scholar, Jia Yucun still agrees with some of Feng Ziying's views, that is, Jiangnan lacks enough force to defend what they want. If this problem cannot be solved, then Jiangnan will be a giant with clay feet. , may be defeated in one blow.

 But isn’t this the case in the North? Without the money and food support of Jiangnan and Huguang, the nine-sided army may collapse overnight. It depends on the results of each party's persistence.

Jia Yucun sighed inwardly as he had no choice but to wait a moment.

The prince treated me well and wrote a letter saying that he wanted to show him a clear path. He reasoned that he should follow him, but was this a clear path? What if it’s a dead end?

  ************

The autumn weather in Tienwang Mountain in September was crisp, the sun was shining high, and the skyline was all yellow. Dozens of horsemen galloped along the edge of the yellow meadow, startling three or five pheasants and hares in the grass in the forest. In full bloom, he was replaced by continuous cheers from the knights.

Riding his horse forward slowly, Emperor Yonglong looked with satisfaction at the gang of boys guarding the banner showing off in front of him, stroking his beard and smiling.

As one of his three personal armies, the flag-bearing guard was firmly in the hands of Emperor Yonglong himself.

Even if there is personnel turmoil in the Beijing Camp, he can let Qian Guozhong and Lao Shi quarrel endlessly, but the leaders of the three pro-military forces, namely the Banner Guards, the Warriors Camp, and the Four Guards Camp, can only be those whom he absolutely trusts.

Miao Zhuang, the commander of the flag-bearer guard who followed Emperor Yonglong closely, was a skinny-cheeked man, with brows like a vulture and eyes like knives. Hanging on the left side of his waist was a long slanted horse sword, and the short-handed blunderbuss on the right side was held diagonally by him. His right hand kept stroking it, as if he couldn't put it down.

This is the latest product produced by the Zunhua Arsenal. It is also the first batch of products after the cooperation between the Ministry of War and the "Gyeonggi Metallurgical Iron and Steel Military-Industrial Complex". It is the most classic self-produced short gun.

　　It used to be a spring wheel ignition, but it was changed to a flintlock firing method, which greatly reduced parts and failure rates, and the production level was also greatly improved, but the requirements for craftsmen's level were higher.

A total of 17 craftsmen were transferred from Yongping to Zunhua, nine of whom were from Foshan, Guangdong, the other four were Hongmaofan craftsmen recruited by Zhuang Limin from Xiyi at a high price, and the other three were from the "Gyeonggi Smelting Iron" In Feng Ziying’s evaluation, the craftsmen trained by the “Gyeonggi Metallurgical Ironmaking and Military-Industrial Complex” are his greatest achievements in the past few years.

Of course, these self-trained craftsmen were actually the best ones selected by skilled craftsmen from various ironmaking workshops. After careful training by craftsmen from Xiyi and Foshan masters, they gradually stood out.

There are seven rated craftsmen in the first batch, together with 12 rated craftsmen from Xiyi and 18 rated craftsmen from Foshan, a total of 37 people have been rated as the first batch of first-class craftsmen by the "Gyeonggi Iron and Steel Military-Industrial Complex". There are also forty-six people who have been rated as preparatory-level craftsmen and will wait for a re-examination one year later before they can be promoted to first-level official craftsmen.

Under these first-level craftsmen and preliminary craftsmen, there are countless workers and apprentices. Among them, there are more than two-level apprentices in Zunhua, Yongping, Qian'an, and Luanzhou bases who have been trained and can officially start work after some internship. Thousands of people, and there are more than 6,000 apprentices who are still in the learning and internship stages.

 Most of the more than 6,000 people can pass the internship inspection and examination and become formal apprentices. It is not a simple matter for apprentices to go through multiple rounds of training and examinations to become preparatory craftsmen.

According to Wang Shaoquan, it is not possible to pick one out of a hundred, but one out of ten. On average, it is considered very good if one out of every thirty apprentices can successfully advance to the preparatory craftsman position every year, while the rest can only continue. Train yourself among the apprentices.

Of course, as the technology improves and the number increases in the future, the annual test will gradually become a semi-annual test or even a quarterly test, but that is a story for another day.

Seventeen of these thirty-seven first-level craftsmen were transferred to Zunhua, accounting for almost half of the entire first-level craftsmen, which shows that the "Gyeonggi Iron and Steel Military-Industrial Complex" attaches great importance to the base area of ​​Zunhua.

After a hundred years of mining, the conditions of Zunhua Iron Mine have become more mature. Once flow-based mining is adopted, the effect will be greatly improved, and a relatively complete logistics support system for iron smelting, ironmaking and various processing has been formed around Zunhua. , the population is far greater than that of Qian'an or Luanzhou, but the technology is relatively backward.

After solving the problem of steelmaking process, this series of productivity can be greatly boosted. It can be said that the conditions are much better than those of new mines and iron smelting workshops in Qian'an, Luanzhou and other places, so there is no need for Feng Ziying to say more. , Shanshan and Shaanxi businessmen and Zhuang Limin took the initiative to move the headquarters of the "Gyeonggi Iron and Steel Military-Industrial Complex" from Yongping to Zunhua.

Of course, Yongping is still an extremely important production base, because the goods produced there are mainly supplied to Jiliao Second Town and shipped through Yuguan Port, while the products from Zunhua are mainly supplied to Gyeonggi and Beijing. The battalion and the Shangsanqin Army were used.

The first batch of seventeen self-produced short muskets were given as gifts by the "Gyeonggi Metallurgical Iron and Steel Military-Industrial Complex" to important officials of the Ministry of War and the commanders of the Jingying and Shangsanqin Army. As the flag-bearer and guard commander, Miao Zhuang Of course I got one.

These seventeen self-generated short muskets are all handmade by first-level craftsmen, but some core components have begun to be produced using streamlined universal modules. However, this method is still not working smoothly and can only be said to be operating at a low level.

However, Feng Ziying believes that as time goes by, the operation of the "Gyeonggi Iron and Steel Military-Industrial Complex" will gradually get better. In the future, the production capacity of this complex will release huge power, and then become a force for the entire North. A force for change that cannot be ignored.

Because he not only personally participated in the production of the entire process flow of the "Gyeonggi Steelmaking and Military-Industrial Complex", but also made some special regulations on the production and operation rules of the entire complex that he believed were basically modern, which would make the entire complex The consortium initially possesses the characteristics of modern industrialization, and at the very least it points the direction.

Miao Zhuang couldn't help but take out the self-produced short gun from the holster and play with it carefully.

Ever since he got this self-produced short musket, he felt that he even lost interest in the short crossbow that he never left behind.

He is not good at bows and arrows, and as the leader of the Shangsanqin Army, it is unsightly to carry a bow and arrows on his back. A short crossbow is very suitable, but it is still so big that it is not convenient to hide it in the bag, and it also needs to be stringed, which is urgent. The situation is still troublesome and time-consuming.

  The self-generating short gun completely solves this problem.

Although he originally had a self-generated short gun, he tried it and found that the failure rate was too high and the power was not enough. In addition, it was easily damaged after being used a few times, so he was very unhappy.

But the effect of this self-generated short gun now is different, and I am very satisfied with it in all aspects. And the key is, as the Shanshan businessmen said, it can be replaced at any time, and the next batch can even provide two for myself to use in turn.

 This is great.

 (End of this chapter)