Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 306 Repeatedly Pulling the Jurchen Man to the Point of Vomiting Blood (Part 2)

Artillery was really important these days, because this was a critical period for the development of cold weapons into firearms.

Cold weapons are simply no match for artillery.

The fact that European colonial raiders could plunder all over the world is proof of this; they relied on their powerful ships and cannons.

Therefore, when Zhu Jue heard that the rebels had started building cannons, he immediately realized the seriousness of the problem and began to promote the development of cannons.

At the same time, he ordered the Hanzhong army to destroy the workshops where people were casting cannons, regardless of the consequences.

The Hanzhong army was truly reckless in its destruction, while Gao Yingxiang was constantly building new artillery workshops. With the two sides fighting back and forth, the New Year passed in the blink of an eye.

By the end of February, as the ice and snow were about to melt, the Hanzhong army was preparing to launch a full-scale offensive. Under their constant harassment, the artillery workshops in Qinshui and Gaoping were burned down. No matter how many were built, they were all burned down.

As a result, Gao Yingxiang sent a large number of troops to guard Yangcheng, an important town. The Hanzhong army was ultimately unable to burn down the cannon workshops inside. As a result, after two or three months, dozens of crudely made cannons appeared on the city walls of Yangcheng.

Although these cannons were crudely made, they still had an overwhelming advantage over the Hanzhong army, which was armed with only cold weapons. Even if the enemy loaded them with loose shells and fired them indiscriminately, the soldiers attacking the city would suffer heavy casualties.

There was no way around it; artillery had too much of an advantage. The range alone was a crushing advantage over melee weapons. Even catapults were useless because the enemy could hit them from a great distance, and the catapults would be blown to pieces before they could even be pushed up.

What should we do in this situation?

Zhu Jue had already come up with a plan for Pan Yunteng, which could be summed up in two words: "siege".

This tactic has a prerequisite: it must guarantee an absolute advantage in field operations.

The Hanzhong army had a significant advantage over the rabble under the rebel Gao Yingxiang. In the open field, Gao Yingxiang's men were no match for the Hanzhong army. Therefore, using the tactic of encirclement was perfectly feasible.

In early March, as the snow and ice had just melted, Pan Yunteng dispatched an army of 700,000 men without hesitation to rush straight to Shanxi. He also sent 100,000 troops to besiege Yangcheng, while the rest of his troops were divided into six routes to advance madly towards Lu'an Prefecture, Qin Prefecture, and Liao Prefecture.

This time, Gao Yingxiang still couldn't hold out. Even though he had many defected border troops under his command, and even though they hadn't given up on any of the cities and had been desperately defending them, the Hanzhong army was still in high spirits and quickly captured Zezhou and Lu'an Prefecture, advancing into Qinzhou and Liaozhou.

Upon hearing the news, the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou could no longer withstand the pressure and had no choice but to seek help from the Jurchens.

Would Huang Taiji still send troops to reinforce them at this point?
The Liaodong army has already reached the south bank of the Hun River. If Shenyang and Fushun Pass fall, the consequences will be unimaginable.

When Huang Taiji received the news, he felt like vomiting blood.

If they still occupied the entire Liaodong region, he might not have necessarily sent troops to rescue the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou.

He has no choice but to provide aid now, because if he doesn't, the meager grain produced on the north bank of the Hun River won't be enough to feed them.

As the saying goes, "an army marches on its stomach," meaning that if there isn't enough food, then there will be a big problem.

He could only survive on grain provided by the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou.

In other words, if he hadn't sent troops to rescue the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants in Puzhou, and had allowed the Hanzhong army to occupy all the fields in Shanxi, at least half of his men would have starved to death.

When a person is starving to death, they are capable of anything; the uprising of the disaster victims in the Northwest is clear evidence of this.

If he couldn't ensure his men were well-fed, the Later Jin dynasty might very well collapse.

Under such circumstances, how could he not send troops to rescue the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou?

He had no choice but to send troops to rescue them.

Fortunately, they already had artisans casting cannons, and the Liaodong army had not yet recklessly poured into Shenyang and Fushun Pass like the Hanzhong army.

At this moment, there are hundreds of cannons on the walls of Shenyang and over a hundred cannons at Fushun Pass. The Liaodong army will definitely not be able to take Shenyang and Fushun Pass in a short time.

His decision to lead cavalry to rescue the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants in Puzhou is not a major problem. As long as they go and return quickly, it is unlikely that the Liaodong army will be able to capture Shenyang and Fushun Pass.

Therefore, after receiving the letters of appeal from the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou, he still led tens of thousands of cavalry straight to Shanxi.

Sun Chuanting learned of the movements of the Jurchen cavalry and then had another idea.

At this point, the long-besieged Dingliao Right Guard had already been captured, and only the north bank of the Hun River remained unrecovered in Liaodong. If he could take advantage of the Jurchen cavalry's trip to Shanxi to relieve the siege and capture Shenyang and Fushun Pass, then the war to recover Liaodong would be a great success. However, whether or not to attack Shenyang and Fushun Pass depended on the Emperor's decision. They had already scouted the dense array of cannons in Shenyang and Fushun Pass, and a direct assault would certainly result in heavy losses.

He couldn't make that decision himself; he could only submit a memorial to the emperor for instructions.

Zhu Jue, however, was now considering the issue of shipbuilding.

Under his impetus, artillery production has increased significantly. Now, the artillery factory in the capital can produce more than 600 cannons weighing 500 jin (250 kg) every day. Building warships is no longer a problem. They can produce 50,000 to 60,000 cannons weighing 500 jin (250 kg) every three or four months, which is enough to equip thousands of warships.

Around 9 a.m. that day, he had just finished reviewing the memorials and then went straight to the Haihe Shipyard with Zheng Zhilong, Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua and others.

At this time, the docks of Haihe Shipyard were already full of huge ships. They hadn't rested while the shipyard was frozen. The hulls of more than 600 large Zhiyuan merchant ships and more than 600 medium-sized Weiyuan warships had long been completed. They had already been tested by the sea and were now assembling boilers, steam engines and water turbines.

Zhu Jue scanned the area as he looked around, and couldn't help but feel gratified.

After this batch of ships is built, they will have over a thousand Weiyuan warships with a capacity of over 3,000 liters each. Driving the Dutch colonial bandits out of Southeast Asia will definitely not be a problem. If they build another thousand or so tower ships and gunboats with a capacity of over 3,000 liters each, they will be invincible not only at sea but also in the waters of the Far East.

The problem is that these ships, which weigh over 3,000 zhang, are over 20 zhang long. Moreover, the hulls of the Weiyuan and Zhenyuan warships require whole pieces of plank. Could they possibly gather that many planks?
As he was pondering this, the fleet had already entered the dock waterway.

Wang Zheng was already standing on the scaffolding, waiting patiently.

After the emperor and his minister exchanged greetings, he couldn't help but ask, "Liangfu, we're not short of timber now, are we sure there won't be any problems with building over a thousand medium-sized Zhenyuan warships in the next batch?"

what?
Those are warships and gunboats, and they weigh over 3,000 tons each. You want to build more than a thousand at once!
Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng carefully calculated the figures before cautiously saying, "Your Majesty, we are not short of timber at the moment. The problem is that the medium-sized Zhenyuan warship requires timber over twenty zhang long."

We've already built over a thousand medium-sized Weiyuan warships, and we've almost used up all the timber that's over twenty zhang long. Even if we can keep bringing timber from the South Seas and the Americas over the next month or so, it's still far from enough.

"I estimate that if we can gather enough timber for over six hundred medium-sized Zhenyuan warships in a little over a month, that would be considered quite good."

These timbers, some over twenty feet long, are indeed not found everywhere. Even if they were to plunder timber at an alarming rate, it's impossible for all of them to be over twenty feet long.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then asked, "Do you have enough timber to build more than 600 small Zhenyuan warships?"

Why did you build so many Zhenyuan warships at once?

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng slowly nodded and said, "This shouldn't be a big problem, Your Majesty. If I may be so bold, it seems that our transport capacity is a bit insufficient right now."

"Your Majesty, I'm also considering whether to test-build a super-large long-distance merchant ship with a capacity of 5,000 liang (approximately 2,500 tons). If we could build it, then timber over 20 zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) long would be much easier to transport."

There's no such thing as insufficient shipping capacity at sea.

At least for now, it is not feasible, because the cargo capacity of the Zhiyuan merchant ship with a capacity of 3,200 liters is less than 500 tons. Even a thousand ships would not reach 500,000 tons, which is at most equivalent to four 100,000-ton giant cargo ships in later generations.

He didn't know how many 100,000-ton freighters there would be in the future, but he was quite clear about the approximate number of commonly used freighters over 10,000 tons—at least five or six thousand!

In other words, even if they built 10,000 Zhiyuan merchant ships of 3,200 liters each, their cargo volume would still be less than one-tenth of that in later generations.

This can't be rushed.

However, the Ming Dynasty urgently needs military force.

Because if war were to break out with the Dutch colonial bandits, the opponent would likely be facing not only the Netherlands.

He had made sure Zheng Zhilong understood that, apart from Spain, almost all the other colonial powers in Europe were part of an anti-Habsburg alliance, including the Netherlands, as well as England and France.

In other words, if he were to go to war with the Dutch, it might attract the British and French as well. It's not that their alliance was particularly good, but rather that their interests in the Far East were enough to make them join forces against the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Jue thought about it carefully and then decisively said, "Let's build the Zhenyuan warships first. We'll build two batches of Zhenyuan warships this year, and build thousands of small and medium-sized Zhenyuan warships. There's no rush for the Zhiyuan merchant ships. We just need enough raw materials for now."

Alright, it looks like we'll have to wait at least another year to build a giant ship with over 5,000 tons of material.

Upon hearing this, Wang Zheng nodded repeatedly and said, "I understand."

As they were discussing, Lü Zhi suddenly rushed over with a memorial in his hand, bowed, and said, "Your Majesty, Lord Sun has sent an urgent report."

(End of this chapter)