Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 162 Impregnable Fortress, Never Fall for a Trick (Part 2)

Zhu Jue's response to the vassal kings' urgent appeals was truly baffling.

Whenever a prince asked for help, he would order Hong Chengchou to send troops to his aid.

Hong Chengchou only had 30,000 men under his command at this time, which was not even a fraction of the rebels. How could he possibly save them?
His actions seem somewhat inhumane. Hong Chengchou's small force is trying to save the King of Zhou, the King of Lu, the King of Fu, the King of Tang, the King of Chong, and the King of Zheng. How can he possibly save them all?
Logically speaking, Hong Chengchou's small force could not possibly have saved so many vassal kings.

However, once Hong Chengchou is involved, things become incredibly strange.

Hong Chengchou's troops were like divine soldiers and generals; he could send a few thousand to provide relief, and even if there were hundreds of thousands of rebels, they would not dare to attack the vassal state!

In fact, Zhu Jue was not heartless; he had long foreseen that Hong Chengchou would do everything in his power to prevent the rebels from attacking the vassal states.

This method doesn't even require many people.

As for the specific method, he wasn't quite sure, but as long as he got Hong Chengchou to send troops to rescue him, the prince would be fine.

The rebels probably didn't dare let Hong Chengchou bear the blame for the princes' deaths, which is why they hesitated to take action against those princes.

Historically, this was the case; when Hong Chengchou was in charge of suppressing the rebels, not a single vassal king was touched.

As soon as Hong Chengchou went to govern Ji and Liao, the rebels seized the princes and looted and killed them!

This is historical fact.

Historical facts prove that Hong Chengchou had connections with rebels and the Jurchens. The link between them was the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants in Puzhou.

Otherwise, when Hong Chengchou was in charge of suppressing the bandits, a large number of the vassal kings would have died.

As for the claim that the rebels didn't dare to kill the princes at first, that's utter nonsense.

The rebels even dug up the ancestral graves of the Zhu family. Wouldn't they dare to kill the descendants of the Zhu family?
Zhu Jue saw through the shady dealings between Hong Chengchou and the rebels, which is why he responded to the prince's plea for help in this way.

He didn't really want to save those feudal lords; he just wanted Hong Chengchou to keep the rebels occupied.

This gives him enough time to develop.

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, it's March.

At this time, the ice and snow in the capital gradually melted, and the North Canal was opened to traffic.

Lü Zhi quickly delivered approximately two million taels of gold and over one million taels of silver to the capital. Subsequently, the navy's fast ships also successively delivered copper and rubber to the capital.

Now Zhu Jue no longer lacks money or raw materials, and he can finally unleash his full potential for development.

He couldn't wait to order Wei Zhongxian to take over all the land in the eastern part of the city, and then brought in more than 100,000 artisans from the western part of the city to dig a large area on the north bank of the Tonghui River.

The first batch of construction involved a hundred docks and waterways starting simultaneously, which extended the shipyard more than ten miles to the west!
He also issued a decree ordering all shipyards in Southern Zhili and Shandong to stop transporting grain ships, and ordered all shipbuilding craftsmen to transport all raw materials to the capital by fast naval vessels.

At this point, the Ministry of Works officials started grumbling again.

All the cargo ships have stopped!
Who does this?

Zhu Jue completely ignored these guys; he was busy building ships and rubber gaskets.

Once this thing is built, steam engines will be much easier to build.

This is because they used to use gold sealing rings, which were very difficult to manufacture.

Around 1:00 AM that day, upon hearing that Song Yingxing had finished making the rubber mixing machine, he couldn't wait to lead Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, and others on horseback straight to the machinery factory in Tongzhou City.

At this time, a strange-looking machine was already sitting in the factory where the new machine was being developed.

This machine had two smooth, large steel rollers, with two steel beams supporting two huge iron gates, two boilers on the side, and steel basins, steam engines, and so on below. It looked like a monster.

Zhu Jue examined it carefully and even nodded in approval, saying, "Hmm, not bad, that's about it. Chang Geng, bring over the processed raw rubber, sulfur powder, and Japanese lead powder, turn on the steam, and get to work."

Well, this steam commotion is quite significant.

Song Yingxing cautiously reminded him, "Your Majesty, the steam pipe connected in the middle of this large steel roller cannot be sealed. Once the steam is released, it will spray out."

That's all we can do now. Without rubber gaskets, it's really hard to seal these rotating parts.

Zhu Jue nodded without hesitation and said, "Just tell people to turn on the steam. It's fine if it sprays."

Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing had no choice but to order the craftsmen to open both steam valves simultaneously.

With a "whoosh," steam immediately billowed out from both sides of the large steel roller.

Fortunately, they also made two sheet metal covers to cover the steam leaks; otherwise, it wouldn't have been steam gushing out directly, but steam spraying everywhere.

At this moment, the two large steel rollers also began to rotate, and the craftsmen brought over the processed raw rubber, sulfur powder, and Japanese lead powder. Zhu Jue went directly to the old craftsman wearing a mask and carefully instructed him: "Just throw handfuls of raw rubber between these two rollers, keep throwing it, let the two rollers press the raw rubber together, press it into a thick sheet, then you form the thick sheet into a circle, let the thick sheet wrap around the rollers, and keep rotating."

Now you can pour sulfur powder and lead powder into the middle. Be very careful while doing this; don't get your hand caught. If your hand gets caught, it'll be ruined.

Upon hearing this, the old craftsman nodded solemnly, then grabbed handfuls of raw rubber sheets and kept throwing them between the two steel rollers.

High-pressure steam flows through the middle of this steel roller, and the surface temperature is over 100 degrees Celsius. When raw rubber is thrown in, it becomes soft and sticky, and when it is pressed out, it becomes a thick sheet about the thickness of a finger.

Seeing that there was enough thick sheet, the old craftsman immediately grabbed one end of the sheet, quickly went around the front steel roller, and stuffed it between the two steel rollers. In this way, the thick sheet of raw rubber became a circle, which kept rotating around the front steel roller.

Upon seeing this, Zhu Jue immediately pointed to the basin containing sulfur powder and lead powder.

The old craftsman quickly picked up a shovel-like iron ladle and poured the sulfur powder and lead powder between the two steel rollers, one spoonful at a time.

Then, a magical scene unfolded: the light yellow raw rubber gradually turned black!

Seeing this, Zhu Jue nodded with a look of satisfaction.

Fortunately, he had read "Tiangong Kaiwu" when he had free time; otherwise, he wouldn't have known about Japanese lead.

Japanese lead is actually zinc, and processed Japanese lead powder is actually zinc oxide.

Zinc oxide is an aid in the vulcanization of raw rubber. Without it, it would be difficult to completely vulcanize raw rubber.

Seeing that the outer layer had almost turned black, he immediately raised his hand and gestured, "Take a knife and cut it in the middle, flip it over, and keep turning it. You don't need to pour in any more sulfur powder and lead powder. Just clean the steel trough and pour it all in. Be careful with your hands."

Upon hearing this, the old craftsman deftly picked up a knife, cut open the outer layer of vulcanized raw rubber, flipped it over, and went back to the original position. Then he picked up a small broom and swept the sulfur powder and lead powder that had fallen into the steel trough into an iron ladle, pouring it back between the two steel rollers one ladle at a time.

Now there's only one step left in the entire rubber mixing process.

Zhu Jue then explained in detail: "Just keep turning it over until the raw rubber turns completely black and hard. Then cut it open, pull it out, and put it on a wooden board to cool."

The process of mixing rubber is actually quite simple, but you need to be careful with your hands.

The old craftsman nodded without hesitation, indicating that he understood.

Everyone was stunned by this amazing scene. They really didn't expect that white and yellow would turn black when they were mixed together!
Everyone was watching the old craftsman work alone when suddenly a rapid sound of horses' hooves came from outside.

A moment later, Fang Zhenghua came quickly with a memorial in his hand, bowed and said, "Your Majesty, this is an urgent report from Zhangde Prefecture, delivered by express messenger from 800 li away."

Zhangde Prefecture?
Isn't that right next to Beizhili?
Zhu Jue took the memorial, glanced at it, and couldn't help but snort coldly.

The prefect of Zhangde reported that the rebel Gao Yingxiang suddenly led more than 100,000 troops, marched swiftly west of the Taihang Mountains, captured Shexian and Wu'an, and his army was heading straight for Guangping Prefecture.

Is Gao Yingxiang courting death? How dare he invade Beizhili!

Guangping Prefecture was their clay production area for making porcelain. The porcelain had only been made for a short time when Gao Yingxiang attacked it. Without a doubt, the information must have been leaked by an inside traitor.

The three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou were forcing him to send troops.

He thought about it carefully, and then decisively said, "Summon Lu Xiang-sheng to come and pay his respects."

Lu Xiang-sheng was currently training the Beijing garrison infantry at the East City Grand Parade Ground; he arrived quickly.

He strode in shortly afterward, cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "Jian Dou, you're familiar with Guangping Prefecture, aren't you?"

It's located north of Daming Prefecture.

Lu Xiang-sheng nodded repeatedly and said, "This humble subject has been there."

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then asked, "It seems that Daming Prefecture, Guangping Prefecture, Shunde Prefecture, Zhengding Prefecture, and Baoding Prefecture can recruit quite a few people, right?"

Lu Xiang-sheng pondered, "These five prefectures originally had quite a few garrisons stationed there, and if all of them were conscripted, there would be roughly 100,000."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then carefully instructed: "Gao Yingxiang wants to attack Guangping Prefecture. You should quickly order 10,000 cavalry to go to Handan to defend the city. Then you should mobilize the navy's fast ships to bring 100,000 infantry to Linqing to provide support."

After you defeat Gao Yingxiang, do not pursue him. Instead, recruit garrison troops and build a defensive line. Recruit all the able-bodied garrison troops you can, train them, and make Daming Prefecture, Guangping Prefecture, Shunde Prefecture, Zhengding Prefecture, and Baoding Prefecture as solid as an iron barrel.

"Once you've recruited enough able-bodied men for the garrison there and the defenses are mostly in place, hand that area over to Youzhen. You and Degong, along with the soldiers of the Beijing garrison, return."

Well, more than 100,000 troops have already gone there, shouldn't we take this opportunity to pursue and annihilate Gao Yingxiang?

Lu Xiang-sheng was taken aback for a moment before quickly bowing and saying, "Your humble servant obeys the decree."

(End of this chapter)