My Daming New Empire

Page 691

Zhu Neng, Song Hu, and Chen Mao were all called into the carriage by Zhu Zhanji.

Sitting in the car, Zhu Zhanji took off the holster tied to his thigh and put it at hand.It's still hot right now, and it's uncomfortable to have a holster hanging over my leg.

This pistol has been adjusted very accurately by Zhu Zhanji. Although the grip is all metal, it is a bit hard to hold, but it is the same after getting used to it.

He has no plans to make a second one now, otherwise, the handle of the next one must leave a place for inlaid wood chips on both sides.It will be even more uncomfortable if you hold it in your hand in winter.

Chen Mao looked at the holster made of pure cowhide, and asked, "Your Highness, is this the pistol handed down by Quanying Tianfu? Can it take a person's life at a hundred meters away?"

Zhu Zhanji smiled and said: "Exactly, 50 meters is a bit exaggerated, because the barrel is too short, and the effective range is only [-] meters."

Many people have already seen the power of the spear, but everyone has only heard of Zhu Zhanji's short spear, and has never seen it with their own eyes.

Zhu Neng said curiously: "His Royal Highness, can I let the minister see it?"

Zhu Zhanji had nothing to do, opened the holster and took out the pistol, removed the magazine, and handed them the pistol that looked like a work of art in their eyes.

The three of them observed carefully, but couldn't see why. I'm afraid they were wondering how such a lump of iron could have such great power.

Chen Mao stared at the bullet in Zhu Zhanji's hand, looked at it carefully for a while and asked, "Your Highness, I understand the principle of firecrackers a little bit. The current gun doesn't even need to be ignited. What's the reason?"

Zhu Zhanji shook his head and smiled, "I don't know the truth, but I can show you the power."

Opening the window of the carriage, Zhu Zhanji looked outside, took back the pistol from Chen Mao's hand, put the magazine in it, and opened the safety.

With the inertial thinking of people in this era, we value results and despise the process.In their view, this gun may be very important, but to Zhu Zhanji, the craftsmanship and principle of making this gun and bullets are more important.

This gun is just for them. At most, after the bullets are fired, it becomes a waste and can only hit people.

But if you know the process of making bullets, that is the real threat.

After waiting for a while, seeing nothing worth shooting, Zhu Zhanji took an apple from the groove on the wall of the carriage and handed it to Li Liang outside.

"As usual, throw me up hard."

Li Liang took the apple, jumped off the carriage, ran forward a few steps, and shouted loudly: "Your Highness, this servant is about to be thrown away."

When the carriage was about to pass by Li Liang, he squatted down slightly, with his palms up, and threw the apple in his hand up.

The gun in Zhu Zhanji's hand also quickly stretched out, and when the apple was about to exhaust its upward force in mid-air and was about to fall, Zhu Zhanji shot.

A loud noise startled all three of them, but the others, including the horses pulling the cart, were not frightened at all.

Li Liang picked up a few crumbs of the apple, returned to the carriage, and said with a smile: "Your Highness, give this apple to the servant."

Zhu Zhanji smiled, he was not short of apples, he was just trying to please.

Chen Mao couldn't help asking: "Your Highness, since there is such a sharp weapon that is not affected by wind and rain, why not equip it in the army?"

Zhu Zhanji asked with a smile: "Isn't my Daming musket a sharp weapon now?"

Chapter 94 Sensible

Daming's musket is already a sharp weapon beyond this era, and Chen Mao has no way to refute this.

He is very aware of the military power comparison between Da Ming and the various ethnic groups in the grassland over the years. Although Da Ming has always had the upper hand in the past, this is because of the advantage of Da Ming using the number of people.

In addition to employing a large number of people, it is also because the national power of the Ming Dynasty far exceeds that of the barren grassland, so that the ethnic groups in the grassland dare not go south.

Although many tribes turned to Daming in order to survive, the forces that had truly inherited most of the resources of the Northern Yuan had always been a serious concern of Daming.

But the grassland is too big, and the boundless Gobi desert and desert block the way, so Da Ming can't take the initiative to attack, and the cost of this is beyond the affordability of Da Ming.

So a short-lived balance is formed.

Chen Mao was also worried at the beginning, but now it is because the emperor attaches great importance to it that he has not reduced his armaments to form such a balance.

If the emperor is changed in the future, Daming is still unable to conquer the nomadic tribes and waits for their power to expand. At that time, the balance will be broken.

The firearm Liu Sheng made at the beginning was bulky, troublesome to load bullets, prone to bursting, and could not be used when it was raining.

In many cases, this musket is no better than a bow and arrow.

However, when the new muskets of the Ming Dynasty became popular, the advantage of the frontier army became an individual advantage.

At this time, Chen Mao's worries were completely gone.

In defense, the Ming army equipped with new muskets can easily withstand cavalry five times the number of Daming.

He directly faced the tribes in the grassland in Ningxia. In the past few years, he witnessed the rise of Ming's military strength because of this new type of firearm. The morale and self-confidence of the soldiers reached their peak because of this new type of firearm.

Because of this, more and more tribes are voluntarily surrendering, even some large forces in the northwest.For example, Liucheng, Huozhou, and Turpan have all voluntarily surrendered now...

There is another important reason for this, and that is the cotton policy implemented by His Royal Highness Taisun in 13 years.

In the 12th year of Yongle, His Majesty marched north, and His Highness discovered a huge copper mine in Beiming Mountain.

Relying on the benefits brought by this copper mine, Daming completed the garrison in Mobei and gradually stabilized.

In the 13th year of Yongle, His Royal Highness implemented a cotton policy in the northwest. Enticed by the trade of spices and tea, all countries in the northwest, including Yilibali and other countries, began to grow cotton in large quantities.

Once cotton was planted, it spread rapidly like a spark.

The tribes in the Northwest used to live only by grazing. Except for cattle and sheep, they didn't have anything that Ming needed.

On the contrary, Ming's ironware, tea, silk, spices, etc., are all what people on the grassland want.

This kind of trade inequality makes Da Ming unwilling to trade with them, and they can only come to Da Ming to grab it.

The power of Ming Dynasty is getting bigger and bigger, they dare not come to rob again, some tribes can only surrender and seek refuge.But the large powers were unwilling to give in, and began to turn to the west and develop in the north.

The advent of cotton changed all that.

No matter how much cotton, Daming is willing to ask for it.And through the cultivation and transportation of cotton, countless people can be fed.

Just a small amount of cotton has completely changed the hostility between the Northwest countries and Ming Dynasty.The nomads and farming peoples finally had common interests and formed a trade link.

In 12, when Chen Maogang came into contact with Zhu Zhanji, he felt that Zhu Zhanji was too reckless because he personally went into battle to kill the enemy as a grandson.

But looking at it over the years, he has completely surrendered to Zhu Zhanji's ability.

Whether it's a new type of musket or cotton, it's all the grandson's handwriting.

In Daming territory, not to mention the growing trade between Daming and Nanyang, just the appearance of a bank allowed Chen Mao to see the role of the bank in promoting the entire Daming.

No matter how those civil servants comment on this grandson, Chen Mao has become a hardcore grandson party.

"Your Highness means that although there are new muskets, the old ones are enough, so we will not take them out for the time being. What if someone learns how to make our muskets, and then use sharper muskets to defeat them?"