Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 83 The Purple Gold Beam Breaks, Rebels Collapse (Part 1)

Han Kuang was truly worried.

He was genuinely afraid that Wei Zhongxian would recklessly send the Embroidered Uniform Guard to Shanxi to conduct a chaotic search.

There are too many shady things happening in Shanxi.

They didn't just sell wild ginseng, sable fur, and other wild game; they also illegally mined iron ore, smelted iron, and sold it to the Jurchens. If this one business alone were discovered, it would be a huge scandal.

And those merchants who do business with the Later Jin, they are all their relatives by marriage. If we arrest more people and interrogate them, we can definitely find out the truth.

He is Yang Bo's grandson-in-law and Zhang Siwei's son-in-law. Yang Bo has seven sons and fourteen daughters, with over a hundred grandchildren. Zhang Siwei has seven brothers and dozens of nephews and nieces. Moreover, Zhang Siwei is Wang Chonggu's nephew and maternal nephew. Those big merchants who do business with the Later Jin are all his relatives!

Would he dare let the Embroidered Uniform Guard find out about this?
Fan Yongdou was also very worried. If he didn't pay compensation, Wei Zhongxian would definitely not let him off the hook. If Wei Zhongxian didn't let him off the hook, the Embroidered Uniform Guard would keep coming to Shanxi. Sooner or later, the Embroidered Uniform Guard would find out about their shady dealings.

The problem is, if he loses money, he will suffer a huge loss. He still has to pay Huang Taiji for the goods. This transaction involves seven or eight million taels of silver. Even if he is as rich as a country, he still can't afford it.

Huang Taiji was also very worried.

All because Mao Wenlong, that scoundrel, went mad for some unknown reason, and actually led his men to sneak into the area between the Changbai Mountains and the Heilongjiang River in Liaodong, where they indiscriminately killed and looted the hunters and ginseng diggers they caught.

He was still busy clearing out the scattered nomadic tribes of the Chahar tribe and couldn't lead the main force back to deal with that guy. If he didn't lead the main force back, the few men left at home would be no match for that guy.

The key issue is that they still have many cities to guard. With the few men they have at home, it would be good enough if they could keep an eye on all the cities. There's simply no way they could organize a force to go into the mountains and fight Mao Wenlong to the death.

This really put him in a bind, leaving him completely overwhelmed.

Zhu Jue was quite pleased with himself at this moment, because Wei Zhongxian had not only robbed him of a large number of valuable goods, but he had also received a big surprise.

Around 9 a.m. that day, he had just finished processing the memorials and hurriedly led Wang Chengen and Fang Zhenghua to the newly built machine factory in Tongzhou City.

The reason he was in such a hurry was because Song Yingxing and Bi Maokang said they were going to test-produce gun barrels made of forged steel today.

If this gun barrel can be manufactured, then muskets can be mass-produced.

At this time, several lathes were placed in one of the workshops of the machine factory. The neat row of them was pleasing to the eye.

Song Yingxing and Bi Maokang were already standing in front of a lathe, where the long gun barrel and drill bit were already installed.

Zhu Jue went over and took a look. The gun barrel was actually solid, and the drill bit was not the twist drill commonly seen in later generations, but a thin, long, round rod with four sharp points at the front.

Is it even possible to drill through this?

He thought for a moment, then simply waved his hand and said, "Let's begin."

You have to try everything to know; how can you know if you can drill through something if you don't try?

Upon hearing this, Song Yingxing immediately waved his hand, and the two old craftsmen got to work. One of them tilted the copper kettle down as if pouring tea, while the other turned on the steam switch and pushed the drill bit into the rapidly spinning gun barrel.

With a hiss, a plume of smoke rose, and the cold water on the barrel of the gun immediately turned into a cloud of steam.

The old craftsman who was pushing the drill bit quickly pulled it back.

Soon, the steam dissipated, and a perfectly round, shallow pit appeared in the middle of the gun barrel. The tip of the drill bit was still sharp and showed no signs of wear.

This proves that it can work.

Upon seeing this, Bi Maokang clenched his fists, his face filled with excitement.

He's been working on it for almost two months now, and the new musket is finally almost finished.

When Zhu Jue saw the shallow pit, he wasn't so excited, because he knew that if he had used a twist drill, it would have been impossible to drill such a shallow pit.

However, he didn't say anything.

He also knew that with the current level of processing technology, twist drills could not be manufactured without special machine tools and special cutting tools.

Although these drill bits are slow nowadays, they are sturdy. A solid little round rod is definitely not like a twist drill, which can easily break.

This is already quite good; it's much faster than drilling by hand. If you were to drill by hand, it would probably take at least several days to drill such a solid gun barrel.

Seeing that he didn't say anything, Song Yingxing immediately waved his hand and ordered the two craftsmen to continue.

Drilling on a lathe is indeed much faster than drilling by hand, because there is no electric drill at the moment. Drilling by hand is like reaming with a reamer, turning it one turn at a time. Drilling such a long steel gun barrel would not only take a few days, but more than ten days!

Now that they're using a lathe to drill, it's different. The drill bit can be seen going in. If the drill bit didn't have to be constantly pulled back and cooled with water, it would probably only take an hour or two to drill through. Even with the constant back-and-forth cooling with water, it would only take a maximum of two hours.

As they watched the drill slowly advance, Fang Zhenghua suddenly strode over, cupped his hands, and bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, the Zhejiang and Fujian naval fleet has arrived." This was Zheng Zhilong sending someone to deliver copper!
Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue couldn't help but ask excitedly, "Where is it?"

Fang Zhenghua replied without hesitation, "The fleet has already begun to dock at the canal wharf outside the East Gate."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Jue immediately waved his hand and said, "Let's go take a look."

After saying that, he strode out, and Wang Chengen, Fang Zhenghua, Liu Ruoyu and others quickly followed.

Seeing this, Song Yingxing hesitated for a moment, but still waved his hand and said, "Lord Meng, you stay here and keep watch. I'll go with His Majesty to take a look."

Soon, the group climbed onto the eastern city wall.

At this time, hundreds of warships of the Zhejiang and Fujian navies had already docked at the canal wharf outside the city.

These warships were all uniform 800-ton sail oarsmen, with a single sail and nine pairs of oars resembling centipede legs; hence, they were called centipede ships.

However, these were not the original centipede ships of the Zhejiang-Fujian Navy, because the Zhejiang-Fujian Navy did not have that many centipede ships in total.

This is just Zheng Zhilong's pirate ship with a different flag; many of them even show signs of smoke and fire.

It was obvious that they had just gone through a naval battle and hadn't returned to rest yet.

Right now, those pirates dressed in naval uniforms are carrying copper ingots ashore. There are tens of thousands of them, densely packed together.

The centipede ship, weighing 800 liang, is roughly 50 tons. That means a fully loaded centipede ship can carry about 100,000 jin of copper ingots. One hundred ships would carry 10 million jin.

This is impossible!

Zhu Jue raised his binoculars and scanned the area for a while, then raised his hand and said, "Zhenghua, go and summon their commander. Tell him I want to ask him something."

So you mean to tell him you're here?

Fang Zhenghua was stunned for a moment before quickly bowing and leaving.

A short while later, a young naval commander dressed in armor strode up the city wall.

When he saw that all the people on the screen were dressed in military uniforms, he was stunned.

Fang Zhenghua whispered something to him, and he quickly stepped forward, cupped his hands, and bowed, saying, "This humble general greets Your Majesty."

Zhu Jue nodded slightly, then asked, "What's your name, and what's your current position?"

How do you say this?

The naval commander cautiously replied, "My original name was Zheng Zhifeng, but I felt that the name was somewhat inappropriate, so I changed it to Zheng Hongkui. I am currently the captain of the Zhejiang-Fujian naval force."

Zheng Zhifeng?
It seems you are Zheng Zhilong's younger brother.

Good heavens, a navy led the president with tens of thousands of troops!
If the Ming Dynasty's navy were truly this large, it could dominate the seas.

Unfortunately, this was not part of the Ming Dynasty's regular naval formation.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment, then asked, "How many brothers are there? How many troops and warships does each of you command?"

Zheng Hongkui hurriedly replied, "Your Majesty, there are five of us brothers. Our eldest brother, Zhilong, commands all the troops and warships. Our second brother, Zhihu, and our fourth brother, Zhibao, each lead over ten thousand troops and over three hundred warships, just like this humble general. Our fifth brother, Zhipeng, is still young and is still studying and practicing martial arts."

This doesn't even include all your troops and warships!

Zhu Jue nodded slightly and then asked, "How many ships did the Dutch fleet you encountered this time have? What was their equipment like? What were your losses?"

Zheng Hongkui explained in detail: "This time, the Dutch fleet we encountered consisted of ten medium-sized galleons, roughly the size of a thousand or two thousand catties, each carrying about ten cannons. Several of our warships were sunk, but the rest can be repaired when we get back."

You guys are really fierce. You've managed to crush the current maritime overlords on the surface of the sea.

Zhu Jue thought for a moment and then asked, "How many copper ingots did you rob this time?"

Without hesitation, Zheng Hongkui said, "The copper ingots we robbed this time are worth two million pounds according to their calculations, but according to our calculations, they are worth approximately 1.1 million catties."

Very good, more than 1.1 million catties, that's enough.

Zhu Jue nodded with satisfaction, then decisively said, "Ruoyu, draft an imperial edict to promote Zheng Zhilong to the position of Assistant Commander of the Zhejiang-Fujian Naval Force in Quanzhou and to the rank of General of the Cavalry, and to promote Zheng Zhihu, Zheng Hongkui, and Zheng Zhibao to the position of Lieutenant General of the Zhejiang-Fujian Naval Force."

They got promoted for this!
Upon hearing this, Zheng Hongkui immediately cupped his hands and bowed, saying, "Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty."

(End of this chapter)