Chapter 699 The way back

The army trekked through the snowy grasslands for nearly two months.From mid-October to early twelfth lunar month, the food in the army had been exhausted and more than 200,000 people were exhausted.

At this time, there were bursts of cheers coming from the front, and countless people heard the movement and were looking around.In the hazy wind and snow, people finally saw the vague shadow of the city tower in the distance.

Kaiping Guard!A place name mixed in the shouting.

As the army gradually approached the city, the officials and soldiers of the garrison left behind the warehouse were greeted outside the city, beating drums and drums, which was very lively!In the vast white wilderness, today is like a festival.

Kaipingwei has a warehouse and stockpiled food.

The granary was immediately opened, and the soldiers of each battalion brought food after entering the city, and smoke from cooking fires rose everywhere in the city.

The Ming soldiers who wanted to vomit after eating horse meat were finally given supplies.

The soldiers from far and near sang songs happily, and laughter was everywhere.

Once the army arrived at Kaipingwei, it went south to Aikou Pass (Zhangjiakou) and there were two warehouses; later, the soldiers of the Northern Expedition Army would be able to obtain sufficient food from the governments of various prefectures and counties within the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

The hard days finally come to an end...

Regardless of the severe cold weather, Zhu Gaoxu wrapped a fur coat outside the dragon suit and walked up the dilapidated north city tower of Kaipingwei.

He looked at the direction he was walking in the north, and for a moment, he felt a mixed feeling in his heart.

But looking back at the smoke in the city, he breathed a sigh of relief.In any case, this Northern Expedition has been successfully completed.

At this time, the civil servant Hou Hai walked up to the city tower and sent a stack of memorials and files, all of which were sent to the north from the capital in recent months.

Some officials sent people to send these documents to Kaipingwei, but did not chase the emperor; there was no official shop on the post road to the north, so many documents were placed here.

It was not until now that Zhu Gaoxu received the memorial.

Zhu Gaoxu walked into the city tower, sat down on the chair, and looked around. Most of them were government documents of the cabinet.There are two letters in it, written by Guo Wei and the concubines of the palace.

After a while, Zhu Gaoxu discovered a memorial from Qian Xun, the Nan Office of the Guardian.

He opened it and looked roughly, and immediately attracted attention, and looked at it in detail again... The Guardian Si Nan Bureau made a musket with an effective range of 80 steps!

Qian Xun's memorial stated that after receiving an annual fund of 200 million yuan (200,000 yuan), the Southern Administration built a dike and the Southern Administration Iron Factory on the Qinhuai River bank south of the Chaoyangmen Grand Secretariat.

They summoned a large number of craftsmen to try to make the long-barred musket proposed by Zhu Gaoxu; this memorial was to report the effectiveness of the iron factory in making muskets.

Zhu Gaoxu has said many times before that to increase the power of the copper musket, the barrel must be lengthened.

(Zhu Gaoxu's statement has his reason, because according to the acceleration principle he learned in junior high school: the lead balls get the thrust of gunpowder to form the thrust of gunpowder, which is not only related to the thrust of gunpowder, but also proportional to the time of thrust acceleration. The longer the acceleration time, the faster the initial velocity of the lead balls; so the barrel must be lengthened to increase the force time of the lead balls.)

Officials such as Qian Xun did not seem to understand this principle, but were just acting according to the order.

Judging from the content written in the memorial, the iron factory craftsmen have thought of many ways.

First, countless craftsmen still cast the gun body with copper and then riveted it, but failed to make it; later, the craftsmen in the South Bureau used cooked iron forged and drilled and grinded it, and tried repeatedly, and then they made a longer musket.

The newly built musket of the Iron Factory can penetrate wooden boards within 80 steps!This is already comparable to the range of bows and arrows. The gun can hit so far, and I couldn't imagine it before...

At this moment, Qi Tai also walked up to the city tower and bowed outside and said, "I am paying homage to the emperor."

Zhu Gaoxu stood up, walked to Qi Tai, and handed Qian Xun's memorial over: Qibutang takes a look at this memorial.Qi Tai, the Minister of War, hurriedly bowed his hands and said, "I will receive the order."

After a while, Qi Tai's voice said: Qian Youzun means that the newly-made hand-held musket is much more powerful than the mountain-opening gun, which is comparable to the bow and arrow?

Zhu Gaoxu suppressed his excitement and said: That's the case, my money has not been spent in vain.

Qi Tai hurriedly clasped his fists and said: The emperor resisted the opposition from all sides, ignored the opposition of Xia Butang and others from the Ministry of Revenue and the Right Envoy, and obtained this weapon.The emperor is wise and I admire him very much!

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said: This thing can change the way of war.From then on, I will no longer easily conquer the Tatars.

Qi Tai was a little surprised when he heard this, but he quickly calmed down and said: Xia Butang, the Minister of Revenue, etc., if he could hear the words of the emperor, he would definitely be very happy.

Zhu Gaoxu laughed dryly.He then stopped his smile and said in a deep voice: Since I ascended the throne, I have carefully looked at the strategy left by the late emperor.The late emperor had a plan to fight north, intending to attack with force, forcing the Mongols to submit to the Ming Dynasty court and solve the problems of the northern border once and for all.

However, after this northern expedition, I felt that the strategy of the late emperor was difficult to complete.The leaders of the Tatars and Watsai tribes all believed in Allah (Muslims) and had no intention of surrendering; Benjali's tent was destroyed, and there was no movement to discuss peace or get a title.If our Ming Dynasty continues to fight like this, it may be able to weaken the Mongolian tribes in this dynasty and make them lose the strength of the south invasion, but it will not fundamentally solve the problem.

Qi Tai nodded and pondered.

Zhu Gaoxu said again: So I believe that we must redeploy the northern defense line.The imperial court should manage Hetao and Liaodong, build ward cities and forts, and form a complete line of defense, so as to ensure long-term stability in all parts of the north.

After saying that, he took a photo of Qi Tai's memorial and said: With the new musket and the Han King cannon, I can build a castle across Hetao and Liaodong.Because hundreds of people can defend a bastion, perfecting the entire defense line will surely become a reality.

Qi Tai looked puzzled and asked: I don’t know what is the ‘battalion’?

Zhu Gaoxu described it roughly.He is not very proficient, but he has been exposed to this kind of thing before, so he can tell me a little bit.

After all, it is a polygonal low fortress, with gunfire as the core of the fortification; it builds the fortifications without shooting dead ends, and then relies on powerful firearms to strike the enemy's attack.

A long time ago, Zhu Gaoxu was thinking about this kind of thing.

But in the past, the firearms were not strong enough, and the castle was an unrealistic thing; without enough firepower, the defense of the low castle was not as good as the rammed earth walls for thousands of years.

Qi Tai didn't seem to understand.Zhu Gaoxu didn't care. After all, this was a new thing. Just need the Minister of War and understand it first.

Zhu Gaoxu gestured twice with meaningless movements, and it felt difficult to explain.

He had no choice but to sigh, look at Qi Tai and said: Some very difficult things, if you think about them based on common sense, you will almost never find a good recipe.But as long as you look at it from a completely new perspective, things will become easier.

Qi Tai: ...

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at Qi Tai and said: Qibutang will understand in the future.

His mood gradually improved.Even the snowflakes floating in the sky made Zhu Gaoxu feel that they were not that cold in just a short while.

Zhu Gaoxu had already put aside his previous feelings and asked Qi Tai to walk down the city tower.Surrounded by his followers, Zhu Gaoxu and Qi Tai rode their horses back to the central army headquarters.

It wasn't heavy snow here, but there was snow on the road.

When they walked to a street, they suddenly saw a ragged woman holding Chai He, throwing her things down and staggering towards Zhu Gaoxu.

The woman behaved strangely, and the guards around her were startled and immediately pulled her horse to surround Zhu Gaoxu.

Who is coming?Chen Wu shouted loudly.

The woman knelt in the snow and said in a hoarse voice: I don’t want to go back to my hometown, so I ask the emperor to take it in...

Zhu Gaoxu looked down at the exposed dragon suit in his fur coat, and suddenly felt that this beggar-like woman seemed quite knowledgeable.

At this time, several soldiers rushed out from the nearby door.A general stepped forward to apologize, and another soldier went to catch the woman and wanted to drag her away.

Zhu Gaoxu was in a good mood at this time and was more patient than usual. He didn't think much about it, but came out of the crowd, pointed at the woman and asked: Who is she?

The general kneeling on the side of the roadside with one knee, clasped his fists and said: Master, this man, Nai Ping, rescued Han people after he captured the Tatar king's tent, did some work of making fire and making meals in the baggage camp.

The woman's dirt-covered face and eyes looked nervous. She said: The general in the army asked about his hometown and wanted to send his slave family back to his hometown.My slave family was plundered and humiliated by the Tatars. My husband's family would rather die, but in helplessness...

Zhu Gaoxu's eyes swept across the faces of the general and the woman. He nodded slightly, probably understanding what was going on.

The woman said again: I heard from the Tatars that the Lord said that he was the king and father of all the people. This time he led a large army to attack the Tatars to stand up for the people...

When Zhu Gaoxu heard this, he immediately waved: Take her back to the headquarters of the Central Army.

Chen Wu immediately clasped his fists and said: I obey the order!

The woman immediately kowtowed in the snow and thanked her.

There were people from the Jinyiwei and the Northern Department of the Guard of the Central Army, so it was not difficult to find out the details of a woman.Zhu Gaoxu doesn't need to ask, he has someone to be responsible for these matters.

The woman was wearing animal skins and rags before, and her face couldn't be seen clearly.

In the afternoon, when Zhu Gaoxu saw her clean again, he actually found that she looked quite beautiful.

There was a whip on her neck, and she seemed to have suffered a lot.

Zhu Gaoxu asked casually and found out that her surname was Luo. A person from Datong Prefecture and his husband's family were a small official. At the end of last year, he was abducted by Tatar cavalry on his own manor.

Luo also said that he had met an eunuch named Huang in the Tatar tent.

So Zhu Gaoxu handed her over to Duan Xueheng, letting Duan Xueheng take care of her...

The army continued to march south for two days after repairing the Kaiping Guard, and it is estimated that it will enter Juyong Pass by the end of this month.This year's New Year's Day can only be spent in the Peking Administrator's Office.