Section 38 Rectification (Part 1)
At the end of January, the Ming army camp not far from Jiujiang.
"Sharpshooter troops, Sergeant, Zheng Yaojun reported."
Just now, Zheng Yaojun's superior ordered ten soldiers, including Zheng Yaojun, to report to Deng Ming, and then Sergeant Zheng and nine other people paid tribute to Deng Ming one by one.
"You haven't seen this gun yet, let's take a look first." Deng Ming took out the sample of the last flintlock rifle and handed it to this musketeer composed of Zhejiang soldiers: "This is called a rifle."
After a simple experiment, all ten soldiers said that this flintlock rifle looked good, but the fuse that was not lit always made people feel a little worried. If it suddenly silences at critical moments, it would be bad.
"But the bullet will also be silent, right?" Deng Ming asked back.
"Yes, but if the fuse is extinguished, we can see it. If the fuse is broken, we don't know how to repair it." Although the advantages of the fuselock rifle are obvious, it is obvious that the musketeers are still a little worried about this strange weapon.
"We need to let soldiers use this weapon, be familiar with the weapons, and know how to repair a failed rifle." Deng Ming nodded. Only by using it for a long time and continuously can we know which part of this new weapon is most likely to be damaged, and let the soldiers provide feedback, so that the weapon can be improved. Anlesi's arms business believes that it takes one year to destroy more than 200 rifles to improve this weapon reliable - of course, this time is closely related to the frequent use of the Ming army's weapons. If the Ming army let thousands of soldiers start using rifles in one breath, shoot continuously every day, and damage dozens or hundreds of them at any time a month, the improvement speed will definitely be much faster. However, Anlesi and others all estimate that Deng Ming is reluctant to waste expensive rifles like this, so it would be nice to have a small improvement in a year.
"When will we be able to equip rifles?" asked ten musketeers one after another. They still needed some data. After all, they didn't dare to load a large amount of medicine at the beginning, and they didn't know if continuous shooting would cause partial explosion of the bolt. Anyway, they were idle on the way back to Sichuan, so it would be better to start immediately and wait until Sichuan was ready to take out the test report.
"I originally wanted to equip you with rifles in a few days and start testing, but our more than 100 rifles were suddenly sold to someone else." Deng Ming had just received an urgent report from An Lesi, detailing his transaction with the dealer, and he also agreed with Deng Ming. If there is a practical test report, it will certainly be more meaningful for improved weapons. Moreover, Deng Ming estimated that the dealer's self-defense battle would not be too intense. The relatively low intensity would allow the new weapon of rifle to better expose the problem, but it would not lead to too serious consequences. If he was fighting the regular army of the Qing Dynasty, Deng Ming would not dare to replace the tried and tested crossbows and muskets with rifles that had not been tested in practice.
"This batch of rifles will be transported to Huzhou and handed over to Mr. Zhuang Yuncheng Zhuang. He bought a total of 140 rifles and five tiger squat cannons from Boss An. We are not interested in testing the tiger squat cannons. Your task is to train Mr. Zhuang's Zhuang's Zhuang, so that they can master the basic movements such as loading and aiming, and can deal with the attacks of the yamen runners or the green camp. You are not allowed to participate in the battle. If the banker is unfortunately lost, you must surrender to Zhao Guozuo. I will arrange for the prisoners to exchange - I need you to record the actual results of this month's training and the battlefield in detail - without affecting your life safety, I need you to try your best to help Mr. Zhuang win."
Now Zhuang Yuncheng is worried that even if he abandons his family property and flees to Sichuan, it will be a dead end. Since Deng Ming sells weapons to him, he must hope that he will cause a big chaos in Huzhou. Then he will rely on his family's struggle to fight for his family to a life path to enter Chengdu.
"You tell Mr. Zhuang that if he can hold on for more than half a year, I will consider giving him a license to invest in immigration."
Even if Zhuang Yuncheng fled to Sichuan immediately, he might not dare to make up his mind. Moreover, the merchant's family is big and the business is big, so it is unlikely that he will move away in the short term. If the property is sold, the land may also arouse the vigilance of the Huzhou government. So Deng Ming made a request to stick to it, making Zhuang Yuncheng feel that his guess is correct, so that he can have hope: "This investment immigration law was just passed by the imperial government. It turned out to leave a way out for the governors in the southeast, so it stipulates that those who have outstanding contributions to the empire can pay money and directly obtain the identity of a fellow scholar."
Deng Ming felt that the bill of the Imperial Parliament was too dark and its scope of application was too small, so it was difficult to meet the conditions of a rich gentry. However, since the parliament was decided so, Deng Ming did not intend to modify it according to his own wishes - this bill was also easy to circumvent. Outstanding contributions are a very vague word, and Deng Ming can decide the final word, and whoever contributes will have it.
After hearing that the people who attacked the banker at the beginning might be just local yamen runners and green camp soldiers in the county town, Zheng Yaojun and others' faces were obviously relaxed. In their opinion, a group of yamen runners and county magistrates were easy to deal with. If Deng Ming had not strictly forbidden them to take risks and also stipulated that they must use rifles instead of familiar old weapons, Zheng Yaojun felt that the ten regular soldiers of the army would definitely beat the yamen run away, even if the number of the other party exceeded 100.
"How long have we been?" However, since the standing army is not allowed to participate in the war, it is hard to say the outcome of the war, because Zhuang Dings are worse than the yamen runners, especially during the first confrontation. Because they knew that as long as they took action, they would kill officials and rebel, even if the yamen runners on the opposite side were yelling with a fierce voice, Zhuang Ding would lose the courage to resist.
"It takes about a month, and there will be no danger before March. At that time, our troops will retreat to the Wuchang line. It is estimated that Zhejiang will start to take action without feeling the pressure." Deng Ming estimated that Jiang Guozhu would probably take action after the Ming and Qing dynasties were away from his territory. An Lesi had already sent a letter to Chengdu for 800 miles and had to produce weapons with all his strength, but even so, there might not be many rifles that could be transported to the southeast within March. Therefore, Deng Ming was also considering how to help Jin Shengtan and others delay the time so that more weapons could be transported to Suzhou.
"I am blunt, this is impossible." After hearing Deng Ming's answer, Zheng Yaojun said without hesitation: "One month is too short. Even the musket we are familiar with will take at least two months to get a man who knows the musket to take it to the battlefield, and we are not familiar with the rifle."
"Indeed, it takes at least two months to train a musketman, but what is the most dangerous thing for recruits?" Deng Ming also learned how to use a mesh rope gun, so he knew exactly what the difficulty was: "The most dangerous thing is not to let open flames touch gunpowder!"
There is a complex set of steps to reload bird guns. If you accidentally explode, you must be wary of the fuse rope touching the gunpowder pocket on your body. Therefore, two months of training are almost indispensable. Although this speed is much faster than training archers, it still cannot meet the needs of the dealer. It is precisely because musketists need to train carefully that the three-eyed gun is popular. That thing is not easy to explode, and there is no need to practice the reloading steps honestly.
"The rifle is not open flames. You will find much faster loading steps, and the recruits will be much safer." Several people opposite Deng Ming showed sudden enlightenment on their faces: "So although the time is tighter, it may not be enough. I'm waiting for your good news."
...
Zheng Yaojun and ten others set off with more than 100 rifles and left the large army and went downstream to Huzhou. Deng Ming then thought of a reason to delay time. Last time, due to the dividend issue, Liangjiang and Huguang jointly protested through the suppression of Deng Zongli Yamen, demanding that Deng Ming stop directly making red blood to their officers and soldiers. The solution was that the provinces would no longer directly distribute the Ming Dynasty's bonds, but instead issued their IOUs with bonds as collateral.
Due to the victory in Huaiyang, the Southeast Governor was more alert to the Sichuan Army. They are now worried that the Qing army will come to settle the score with them, and that the Sichuan Army will take the opportunity to annex their territory. Therefore, Deng Ming used the excuse of issuing bonds and dividends as an excuse to stay in Jiangxi for a longer time, but if he stayed for too long, Zhang Changgeng and Zhang Chao might be worried that the Sichuan Army would have any plans to invade.
"Do you feel that there is not enough money to spend?" After seeing Dong Weiguo who came to negotiate with him, Deng Ming asked straight to the point and sighed: "Now I am also a big family and I ask me for money everywhere. This is not a good life."
This problem made Dong Weiguo feel a little sad. Half a year has passed, and it is getting closer and closer to Deng Ming's repayment of bonds. Although Deng Ming once became popular, Dong Weiguo is still worried that Deng Ming will be slapped the debt. The reason for this meeting was to discuss the bond issue, and Deng Ming would not have enough money to pay when he saw him, which obviously did not bode well.
"I thought about a deal that makes money. I wonder if Dong Buzheng is interested?" However, Deng Ming did not talk about bonds, but talked about something that Dong Weiguo could not understand at all: "I plan to set up a stock exchange in Jiujiang and a futures market, which should earn a lot of handling fees for us. I came up with ideas and formulate rules to use Dong Buzheng's territory to start it. If you have money, we will just get 50% off the account. How about it?"
After hearing Deng Ming say that he had 50% of the accounts, and that Dong Weiguo didn't have to pay the capital, Dong Weiguo naturally had no resistance, so he heard Deng Ming introduce the concept of stock and securities trading in detail, and the futures market was even more novel.
Chapter completed!