Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 294 The French in the Qing Palace

It is said that after Heshen entered the palace to report, Qianlong quickly agreed to dismantle the "continuous musket", but everything must be carried out under the supervision of the guards.

It's easy to dismantle a shotgun, but it's not so easy to dismantle a gun from Beihai Town.

This is actually a matter that those who are difficult will not know, and those who can meet are not difficult, but it is really difficult for the ancients.Under the watchful eyes of the two second-class guards, several craftsmen looked over and over for a long time, feeling unable to start.

Although Qianlong handed over the dismantling of firearms to He Shen, he paid close attention to the progress every day.After hearing that the waste snacks in the Armed Forces Academy had made no progress, he asked He Shen to take the two of them to the Royal Shotgun.

Although the two men brought by He Shen were dressed in official uniforms and hats, they had blond hair and blue eyes.

The older of the two is Wang Dahong, a Frenchman, 51 years old this year; the other is Ba Maozhen, also a Frenchman, 48 years old this year.They are all missionaries of the Society of Jesus, and they are currently working in the Ruyi Museum under the Manufacturing Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, specializing in the manufacture and repair of clocks and watches.

Wang Dahong came to China in the 31st year of Qianlong and arrived in Beijing in the second year; Ba Maozhen came to China in the 46th year of Qianlong and arrived in Beijing last May.

The Qing Dynasty recruited Western scientific and technological talents from Macau to serve the court from the Kangxi period. Due to the relationship between Nan Huairen and Tang Ruowang in the early days, these people were selected from the Jesuit priests. Some worked for the Qin Tianjian, and some worked for the court Manufacturing Office; historically, it was not until the 16th year of Jiaqing that the recruitment of personnel to serve in the Manufacturing Office was stopped.

Since Qianlong succeeded to the throne, the recruitment and use of Western technicians has reached an unprecedented level, and the Western missionaries in the court have not been affected by the large and small teaching cases that occurred from time to time in various places.The so-called "Chinese and foreign defense must be strict. The sincerity of distant barbarians must be unreasonable."

But as long as these Jesuit missionaries come to Beijing, they will never even think about leaving in this life!
Someone once asked Qianlong to return to his hometown because he was too old and missed his relatives in his homeland.Qianlong deliberately issued an edict, thinking that it is unreasonable!
In his view, since you priests have parents and relatives who need to be taken care of at home, you should not travel across the ocean to serve the imperial court in the Qing Dynasty.And your coming to Beijing to serve is a voluntary act of admiration and sincerity, so you must serve me for life, until you die!
(So ​​you know why Qianlong later learned about the French Revolution and the king's head loss, right?)

Among the two Frenchmen who followed He Shen, Wang Dahong was one of the most important watch and mechanical technology backbones of the Manufacturing Office in the middle and late Qianlong Dynasty.This old man keeps making clocks and watches every day, not only for the emperor, but also for princes and ministers.

According to what the later Wang Dahong described in his letter to Europe, every day is not only busy, it is simply overwhelmed.

However, Wang Dahong was extremely talented in machinery and design, and the very famous "copper-plated writing clock" in the Treasure Hall of later generations is his masterpiece.Before starting, just dip the small brush of the robot in ink, and when the switch is turned on, eight characters will be neatly written: "Eight directions, nine lands come king".

Now that He Shen has brought these two people over, it means that if even the two of them can't understand, then no one can understand.

The two French missionaries didn't know what to do when they were called away by He Shen, but they were very happy to have a day without repairing the clock; but when they saw the musket on the table, their eyes almost stared. Come out and think what the hell this is!

"Your Excellency Zhongtang, is this really a musket? I have never seen such a musket before!" Before Wang Dahong and the others came to China, the most sophisticated firearms they had ever seen were the "Charvette Fusiliers" and "Brown Bass". .

Looking at the length of the gun in front of him, Wang Dahong was surprised and wondered why the gun was so short?Looking at the caliber at the muzzle, it was even more dumbfounded after measuring it.

At present, the flintlock guns in Europe are basically about 1.5 meters long and have a caliber of 17-19 mm. However, the gun body of this gun is short, and the caliber is only a little over 7.6 mm.

Where did this gun come from?
At this time, He Shen smiled and said to Wang Dahong and Ba Maozhen: "Master Wang, Master Ba, you two are rare skilled craftsmen, let's see how you can disassemble this gun so that you can measure the dimensions of each part."

"Master Zhongtang, where does this gun come from?"

He Shen didn't change his face, and said with a smile: "Things from overseas."

Seeing He Shen, Wang Dahong and the two didn't want to say more, so they had to re-measure the size of each place first, and then fiddled back and forth.

After about a cup of tea, Wang Dahong first pulled the silver bolt, then tried to pull a reed under the gun body, and reached out to the black iron box (magazine chamber) under the gun body Just pull it, and it will be opened in one stroke.

Several artisan leaders surrounded him, but the black iron box could only be opened, not taken down.

After a while, Wang Dahong found an inconspicuous black steel buckle on the left side of the gun tail. He asked Ba Maozhen to use a tool to push the buckle upwards, and found that it was a movable bolt. He turned the bolt , with a strong lift, the black bolt back cover is removed; the impact spring inside is exposed, and the spring is pulled out with a pull.

He Shen also came up to watch at this time. He pointed to the removed spring and the iron rod inside and asked, "What is this?"

Wang Dahong picked up the spring, stuck out his nose and asked, then shook his head and said: "Your Excellency Zhongtang, please forgive my ignorance, the parts of this weapon are very strange, and I have never seen them in Europe. This spring seems to be It is made of steel, although it looks rough in appearance, but the processing technology is extremely superb, and it will take time to figure out the principle."

He Shen had to wait in front of Qianlong every day, and would not leave until the palace gate was locked. It was already the limit for him to stay in the Armed Forces Academy for an hour.Seeing the progress now, he nodded in satisfaction and said: "So, you two can continue to work, I'm going to report to the emperor."

In fact, he was more concerned about when the imitation product could be produced in order to report the good news to Qianlong.

Two days later, Wang Dahong and Ba Maozhen finally figured out how to remove the trigger mechanism under the gun body, and finally even separated the handguard from the barrel.

To be honest, compared to an extremely sophisticated mechanical clock, it is much easier to dismantle a weapon made of steel and wood.

At this time, the two Frenchmen were surprised to find that there was no trachoma on many parts of this strange musket; obviously, these parts were not cast at all, and seemed to be made of some extremely hard tools. Machined directly from a single ingot.

At this time, the world's first boring machine has been around for 12 years. The current main purpose of that boring machine is to process barrels and cylinders of steam engines.But the British kept it a secret, and the two French missionaries didn't know it at all.As for the cutting lathe, it will be another 11 years before it will appear in the UK.

Obviously, if this thing was made of steel, even Wang Dahong's genius would be helpless.

Seeing that the time limit given by Heshen was getting closer and closer, a craftsman leader came up with an idea. He said that since cannons and shotguns can be made of bronze, can this gun also be made of copper?

Everyone thought it might be the way. Although drilling and cutting bronze was laborious, it was easier to process than steel.

From then on, Wang Dahong and Ba Maozhen, apart from continuing to repair clocks and watches at the manufacturing office, came to the Royal Shotgun Office every other day to instruct the craftsmen to carry out imitation work.

On the other hand, on the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, Qianlong summoned Fu Kang'an who had returned to Beijing to meet in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Looking at the pale and thinner Fu Kang'an in front of him, and recalling the young man who talked and laughed freely in Gu Pan, Qianlong couldn't help thinking of the late Fu Heng, and he said with a smile on his face: "Your trip It's not easy to do a job, but it's done well, but it's much thinner than before leaving. Winning or losing is a common matter in military affairs. It's good to be brave after knowing your shame, but you must also take care of your body."

Fukang'an's teary eyes sparkled, and he said: "This is the blessing of the master, who has been spread all over the world. What virtue and ability can this slave have. These days, the slave has been introspecting himself. He was really arrogant and arrogant in the past, relying on his master Trust, take all the credit and ability to your own account."

While talking, Fukang'an looked at Qianlong from time to time, only to feel that it was not far from when the Majesty resigned, the brows were as vigorous as before, and people in their 70s looked like they were only in their early 60s.

Qianlong shook his head and said: "What do you mean? Who dares to say that you are incompetent! There is no need to say such things again. Tell me, what experience do you have when you go to military training these days?"

"Whoo."

Fukang'an got up and sat on the scorpion, and gave a general account of the military training in the green camps in Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, and Henan provinces during this period. Many of the details have already been mentioned in the memorials he handed over.

It is said that before Fukang'an met Zhao Xin, he had to lead troops to battle with the most elite, either the Beijing camp, or the Tianshan Banner camp, and the last one had to be the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Camp.With a little training and a lot of silver rewards for these already elite troops, their combat effectiveness will naturally be high.

But this time, after he went to inspect the green camps in four provinces, he found a lot of problems, which can be said to be shocking.

The most important thing is that the number of soldiers is false, the number of soldiers is insufficient, and some provinces even use craftsmen to pretend to be soldiers.It is common for the generals of the green battalion to take advantage of the opportunity to find trouble and deduct the soldiers' pay; what's more, they directly lend usury among the troops in the headquarters, and then use the soldiers' military pay to pay back; There are all kinds of disadvantages.

In the 46th year of Qianlong, in order to eliminate the empty quota in the green camp, Zeng ordered the abolition of the famous food system in the green camp, and implemented the military service to maintain integrity.But in fact at this time the military and government have been extremely corrupt.In Fukang'an's booklet to Qianlong, he mentioned that "there are many disadvantages, in name only. Without the benefit of increasing troops, the court will suffer the harm of increasing wages."

I only heard Fu Kang'an finally said: "Seeing that the soldiers pay a small amount of money every month, and the generals in charge have embezzlement and bad rules. Under the layers of exploitation, there is not enough to support their parents inside, and there is not enough to buy armor and equipment outside. It's hard to fight on the battlefield, and it's impossible to get it in the end!"

After hearing this, Qianlong looked at the green smoke curling up from the censer in the hall, and sighed after a long time: "The root cause is still in the administration of officials. There are soldiers on the books, but there are no soldiers in the army; there are pay on paper, but there is no pay in the army."

Fukang'an carefully looked at Qianlong's face and said: "Nowadays, the government is getting worse and worse. The master knows it, so why doesn't he make an order to rectify it? This time, the slave has an interview below, and things can still be done."

"Some things are easy to say, but really hard to do!" Qianlong turned his head to look at Fukang'an, and sighed: "The things you do down there, although you have trained soldiers, are not enough to be the benchmark of the world. Who would dare to stand against you among the military and political officials in the four provinces? Some people want money and have money, and they can respond to everything, and the power of the world can meet the needs of several provinces. You can’t use this as an example!”

Having said that, Fukang'an also knew it was time to step down.He finally asked: "The slave heard that Sun Shiyi had seized a musket from Beihai Town, and asked the master for permission. The slave wants to take a look."

Qianlong said: "I let Wang Dahong and Ba Maozhen take charge of this matter, and He Shen supervised it. The gun is placed at the bird's-eye gun. But you have to understand that these strange skills seem to be amazing, but if they are repeated The people of the world have turned against each other, so what do a few guns do? No matter how well built Zhao Xin's big ship is, can it sail to the shore?"

On the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, the Ministry of War has drafted an order to transfer troops. It is planned to transfer [-] green battalion soldiers from Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, and Henan provinces after the [-]th day of the first lunar month. , to strengthen the defenses of Ninggu Tower and Hunchun.

The next day, that is, the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, Qianlong reinstated his post as a co-organizer of the bachelor's degree with Fukang'an's successful military training and effective work, and was awarded the title of Minister of the Ministry of War.

On the same day, he issued an order to recruit 2000 soldiers from Manchuria and Mongols from the Eight Banners in Beijing, and [-] soldiers from the Han Army in the Eight Banners, including [-] soldiers from the Eight Banners, and hand them over to Fukang'an for the exercise.At the same time, [-] soldiers from the Eight Banners were selected to practice the formation of self-propelled guns in the Old Summer Palace.

On the 29th day of the twelfth lunar month, Qianlong held a banquet in the Palace of Preservation and over a hundred people from Zhengwaifan, princes of various left-wing Mongolian tribes, Taiji and Baylor.Last year's defeat in Fuldan City caused heavy losses to the left-wing Mongolian ministries; in order to show appeasement, Qianlong specially rewarded the Chahar banners who participated in the battle of Fuldan City after the banquet.

On the [-]th day of the twelfth lunar month, Qianlong drafted another order to transfer troops. He planned to transfer [-] green battalion soldiers from Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, and Henan provinces after the [-]th day of the first lunar month. Jilin Ula, used to strengthen the defense of Ninggu Tower and Hunchun.

The Chinese New Year is always happy, and so is Beihai Town, which is thousands of miles away.

Beginning on the 26th of the twelfth lunar month, the civil administrations of Beihai Town and the two places organized residents to slaughter pigs and sheep. According to the standard of half a catty of meat for each person, regardless of age, this item alone was more than 5 catties of meat.

In addition, for the newly arrived refugees this year, the civil administration also allocated daily necessities such as grain, salt, oil, pickles, etc., which made many refugees who were once under the rule of the Manchu Dynasty very grateful.

In Zhao Xin's view, if his physical fitness cannot keep up, he will not be able to serve as a soldier or work in agriculture.Rather than this, in order for these people to invest in spring plowing and land reclamation in the coming year, they can only strengthen nutrition from now on.

Relying on sufficient rations, modern medical technology and drugs, the infant mortality rate in Beihai Town in the 51st year of Qianlong was only 57 per thousand.The nursing team led by Liu Siting won the praise of "ten thousand families live Buddha" among the refugees, and many families came to their homes with various homemade mountain snacks to thank them at the end of the year.

These people didn't even enter the house. After knocking their heads respectfully outside the door three times, they put the things outside the door of Director Liu's house and turned to leave.Looking at the gifts piled up like a hill outside the door, Director Liu was very moved.

On the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, the Thor came back with the people stranded in Leiyumen and Shen Jingdan's family.

Among the group brought by Shen Jingdan were his wife Shen Wushi and youngest daughter Ayu, which made Shen Xuan very happy.In addition, Guisheng and his father Ah Si also came, and several Shen family children also accompanied them.

Zhao Xin understands Shen Jingdan's little bastards in his heart. He plans to let these Shen family children go to civil affairs to start as ordinary clerks after the next year. Those who are capable will naturally be promoted. .

As for Wang Rongfu, a celebrity from Yangzhou that Zhao Xin asked Shen Jingdan to invite, because he was not used to the dry and cold climate in the north, he fell ill as soon as he disembarked.After repeated persuasion by Zhao Xin, Shen Jingdan and the Wu brothers, Wang Rongfu reluctantly agreed to be hospitalized.

The soldier who died in Guangzhou had already been cremated in Lei Yue Mun, and the grieving family members held the urn and wept endlessly.But right now New Year's Eve is not suitable for funerals, so we arranged to wait until the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.However, the due pension and related certificates were sent to the family members one day later.

On New Year's Eve, except for Liu Sheng, Wang Yuanfang, and Fang Hua in Beihai Town, all the cross-travelers signed their names and fingerprints on the trust document.The secrecy issue that Zhao Xin was worried about was finally solved.

By the end of this year, the total population of Beihai Township had reached 11.2, with an increase of more than 4.3 people throughout the year.

(End of this chapter)