stubborn thief

Chapter 412 Peeping
On the shore of Qinghai Lake, the three-eave umbrella cover of the silver pagoda on the top of the silver pagoda is stretched open.

Liu Chengzong and Batur Huntaiji sat in the top chairs under the shadow of the umbrella, and there were bursts of gunfire not far away.

Batur Huntaiji was a man of great leadership, and he didn't even look at the guns brought in from the arsenal. He waved his hand and asked his own soldiers to test the guns, while he invited Liu Chengzong to sit down by the lake.

Liu Shizi is also very open-minded, and I told Shi Cheng that when the soldiers of the quasi-buying army finished testing the guns, let them let go of the guns. They fired the blunderbuss [-] times and the artillery [-] times until the guns were destroyed. .

Hui Taiji was not very interested in experimental guns, but was very interested in this open umbrella cover.

Liu Chengzong raised his finger and pointed at the umbrella cover and said with a smile: "You want this? Later, someone will make you an identical one."

Batur Huntaiji waved his hands again and again: "It can't be the same, it can't be the same. I heard that these things in Ming Dynasty have ritual rules, and the general learned from it that there must also be ritual rules, and they can't be overridden."

"Tch, arrogance, you think it's beautiful, this is the second grade ritual system."

Liu Chengzong laughed and said to Hui Taiji: "You know where I came from. I didn't make the umbrella cover. In the early years, I fought with the imperial court general. He ran away. My soldiers went to the battlefield to see that everything was left behind. Well, it’s all good material, and it’s not good to waste it, so I picked it up and used it for several years.”

While the two were chatting and laughing, an old Cossack rode an Ili horse, shaking a lock of hair on his head, and reported the situation of the guns to Batur Huntaiji.

Liu Chengzong asked Hui Taiji about this man, the old man looked seventy years old, his face was wrinkled, but he could ride a horse and shoot a gun. Anyone who saw it was curious, thinking that he must have been a fierce general when he was young.

But I didn't expect that when I inquired, he was only 47 this year.

The old man's name is Qiban, and he was born in a small town in the southwest of Russia, probably called Krome. Anyway, according to Dai Daozi's description, the strategic location of that place is basically the same as that of Yulin to Daming.

This is also unlucky, it belongs to Huang Shengxiao's foreign counterparts, the name is Shooting Army, and it is also divided into Beijing camp and local army. Dai Daozi thinks that Qiban is the Banner Army of the Border Town Hereditary Guards.

so similar.

Over here, Lord Wanli was so bad that he refused to go to the court to make up his official position; over there, he didn't even know who the king was for many years.

On one side, the Banner Army was forced to garrison the fields and was forced to neglect the military; on the other side, the nobles were free to serve the soldiers without payment.

Later, a battalion was established here, and a new stove was started; a standing army was also formed there, which was unique.

Even the outcome was the same, there was an uprising here, the guards and flag troops who were starved of food were the main force, and there was also an uprising over there, and the shooting army everywhere was also the main force.

More than 20 years ago, the peasant uprising army fought outside the city where Qiban was stationed. They surrendered on the spot and then went to attack the next city. After less than two years of fighting, the uprising failed due to the mutiny of the nobles.

Later he went to become a Cossack. Dai Daozi said that the Cossacks actually had a similar lifestyle to their peasant army, especially like the Marshal's Mansion, who went to a wasteland to catch and beat whomever.

Chiban spent several years in the Cossacks. Once he failed to rob the Tatars and was captured. He could not read a single word and was sold to the Ottomans to serve as a rowing slave on a galley warship.

For a soldier who was born in the lower classes of Tsarist Russia, returning alive after serving as a white slave in Ottoman for several years was considered an advanced study.

When he regained his freedom and returned to the Don Cossacks, he became the most educated group of people, who could speak Persian fluently and even write a few sentences.

The reason why this level of education is only one of the small group is that there are many Cossacks who have returned from advanced studies and have achieved academic success.

With a little culture, Qiban no longer wants to hang out in the Cossacks, and plans to go home to find a way out. Who would have thought that before he got home, he bumped into a nobleman who wanted to build the Great Wall in the south, and he wanted to pull him to build it. Great Wall.

The Great Wall of China is on the north because the Mongols are on the north; the Great Wall of Russia is on the south because the Mongols are on the south.

Their southern captives are the Crimean Khanate. In fact, Tsarist Russia is not afraid of them at all. The Tatars fought for robbery. They have been robbed of millions of people as slaves for decades. Are they still afraid of your robbery?

Tsarist Russia, which was still in the era of feudal aristocratic rule, directly used poverty to be immune to robbery.

What does it matter to me, the Tsar, that you robbed the farm of the manor landlord?

The Tsar didn't have so many hobbies, he only had one responsibility, to do Poland.

In order to prepare for a big battle, they bought more than 1 outdated heavy muskets from Sweden, which had completed its military reform, and led the army to fight against Poland in the west.

Unexpectedly, under the strong army, the city was almost destroyed. The Tatars ransacked from the south, and the nobles led the soldiers back to defend their property. The offensive collapsed in an instant.

So Tsarist Russia wants to build the Great Wall.

Chiban escaped again, but this time he was not so lucky and was caught and exiled to Siberia.

In Siberia, Qiban, who was already an old man, was captured again in an attack against the Tatars and became a slave of the Tatar leader Batur Huntaiji.

In the words of Junggar Taiji, this Qiban is good everywhere, but it can only row boats and not build boats.

Batur Huntaiji was very satisfied with the performance of the bird gun. Of course, this was based on the fact that Liu Chengzong had told him about the situation of the bird gun beforehand, and he had mentioned all the advantages and disadvantages.

It's just that for Hun Taiji, he doesn't care about his shortcomings. On the one hand, because he has cannons as a supplementary firepower, he doesn't need every musket to have the power to penetrate heavy armor.

On the other hand, he smirked and told Liu Chengzong a secret: "The muskets of the Raksha barbarians are more powerful in my hands than in their hands."

Liu Chengzong was very puzzled by this: "Why?"

Have you topped up?

"Their gunpowder is not good." Batur Huntaiji smiled and said with a thumbs up: "My gunpowder was made by Yarkand back. The gun is powerful."

"I heard that they could buy so many muskets because the sellers had better gunpowder and made shorter and lighter muskets, so they sold them heavy muskets, unlike the commander who sold them directly to me. OK!"

After Liu Chengzong thought about it, this statement was quite credible.

They have a fixed gunpowder formula, which determines that under the condition that the strength of the gun barrel is allowed, the length remains the same, and the larger the caliber, the more powerful it is.

However, not everyone else in this world has a fixed gunpowder formula, which will result in holding a large-caliber musket and suffering heavy hardships for nothing, but unable to exert the power of the large-caliber gun.

Moreover, power mainly depends on the opponent. If it weren't for the increasing trend of heavy equipment on the Liaodong battlefield, Liu Chengzong would not choose heavy individual firearms.

However, Liu Chengzong didn't take Hun Taiji's wearing a high hat seriously at all. No one was a fool. He didn't sell Hun Taiji active firearms. Both he and Hun Taiji knew it well, so he just smiled and said nothing.

He knew that Hun Taiji must have something to say later.

Because when he returned to the Naval Yamen, he summoned Dai Daozi first, and then Hun Taiji.

Dai Daozi reported that Batuer Huntaiji's life was very regular when the Generalissimo was not in the Navy Yamen.

He would go to the seaside dock on time every day to see the warships that were about to launch, and at other times, he would lock himself in the post office of the Navy Yamen, pondering some strange things.

Dai Daozi bumped into him many times, Junggar Taiji broke a lot of small wooden sticks and threw them all over the table, as if he was divination.

Sure enough, seeing Liu Chengzong's silence, Taiji Taiji said: "Marshal, I've done the math. If I can only buy equipment for a thousand-man team next year with the goods I can provide, but I also need ships...so I I think I owe you some money."

Before he could speak, Batuer Huntaiji said: "Don't worry, Commander. I can only control Junggar. If I have three thousand-man troops armed, I can control the entire Oirat."

In fact, Junggar currently has the strongest right to speak in Oiratri, but this time he lost the battle, and his prestige will inevitably be damaged when he goes back. The armed forces of the three thousand-man teams can not only restore Junggar's status in the shortest time, but also in the country. Has an advantage against all minions.

He said: "If I can control Oirat, I can exchange [-] sheepskins for [-] mink, fox, and snow-sweeping skins."

Liu Chengzong raised his eyebrows: "So many?"

Taiji waved his hand and said: "Not many, there are many fishing and hunting tribes in the swamps of the lower reaches of the Irtysh River, where the hunting season is from October to April of the next year, and an experienced hunter can hunt 120 to 280 mink."

"We have our hunting tradition, and we won't force them to hand over two hundred pieces like the Raksha people. As long as those tribes can resume paying tribute to me, I can give out 30 mink furs and [-] pieces each year. furs, so boats are necessary.”

In fact, Huntaiji has a more wild heart, not only in the northern swamps, but also in the Yenisei River Basin northeast of the Tianshan Mountains, where the Kyrgyz tribe lives, and the vast land farther to the ice sea.

Even if the whole land does not use the hunting method of exhausting the lake, it can provide 200 million squirrel skins, 20 snow-sweeping skins, and [-] white fox skins every year.

But Batur Huntaiji thought it was normal, but Liu Chengzong was worried that this guy would kill all the small animals in Siberia for weapons and equipment.

He shook his head and said: "Hun Taiji doesn't have to just stare at the leather material, I won't treat you badly if you submit to the Marshal's Mansion, there are still many trades we can do, such as cashmere, I can give you a rod of sixteen catties of cashmere musket."

"Or gold and silver, I can clearly mark the price here. I plan to mint a batch of gold coins and silver coins, which will be used for our trade in the future. You should have gold, silver and copper over there."

"I send people to explore and find mines. My people provide mining technology, and your people are responsible for mining. You have to pay [-]% of the mining income to the government as mining tax. The remaining [-]% is your own. Let the caravan Bring it here and I’ll mint coins for you, and get the goods directly from me.”

To be honest, Hui Taiji could no longer accept Liu Chengzong's enthusiasm.

If the conditions at the beginning made Hun Taiji suspect that Liu Chengzong had an Oirat Tatar hidden in the Han people's skin, then now he really suspects that Genghis Khan is reincarnated in front of him, and he himself is the Mongolian chosen by Genghis Khan. people.

He would even ask himself, why, why?
Liu Chengzong's trade cannot be said to be unprofitable, but his side is the entire Marshal's Mansion, and his side is always only himself.

These are big cakes, bring them to your mouth.

If this continues, I am afraid that next year he will be the richest Taiji in Mongolia.

Before he could say anything, Liu Chengzong threw another big cake: "When you become the real leader of Oirat, you have to settle down and don't let people go to Yanchi to ask for salt. Salt is very important. You should send someone Protect it, assign people to mine, set up official salt merchants in each tribe, and your horse team will transport salt to them."

"When I mint copper coins and silver coins, each person will use about two to three catties of salt a year, and set a price per catty. For example, here I am 260 Wen copper coins per catty, which is about a piece of sheepskin per catty. You control the salt. , it controls a kind of tax, how many people you can control, and how much money these people can pay you every year.”

Under the shadow of the umbrella cover, Batur Huntaiji leaned back, raised his head and opened his mouth slightly, staring blankly at the blue sky.

Mathematics is a relatively complicated problem for him, but it is related to wealth, and it is worth pondering seriously.

10 people are 100 sheepskins per year, and 100 million people are [-] million sheepskins per year... Batur Huntaiji shook his head. There are almost that many people in Oirat, but he is reluctant to get so many sheepskins every year. Change to an equivalent.

But with Liu Chengzong's copper coin, he couldn't figure it out, he only knew it was a very rich fortune.

He asked Liu Chengzong very seriously and puzzled: "Why does the Generalissimo treat me so well?"

Liu Chengzong was surprised by this question: "I thought I made it clear to you a long time ago that I need you to guard the northwest fence for me for generations."

Batur Huntaiji also knew this, but he felt that this reason was not enough, he said: "Generalissimo, I know this, but the opponents are not... They are weak compared with you, and it is not worth investing so much money , does the Generalissimo want us to go to the Central Plains to charge for you?"

"I will go to the Central Plains myself, but Hun Taiji, you can't think like this. Being weak doesn't mean you won't become stronger."

Liu Chengzong looked at Hui Taiji, raised his index finger and waved slightly: "You may not know what Tao is. I said that the contrary is the action of the Tao, and the weak is the use of the Tao... This is the mutual generation of presence and absence, difficulty and difficulty, blessing and misfortune. Everything changes."

"Things change according to their laws, and the same is true for the rise and fall of a country. What is the law? The law is that the strong will get lost and stagnant, the poor will strive to become rich, and the weak will fight to the top, and eventually the offense and defense will change shape."

"Everything in the world, no one can be perfect, even the most Han Chinese, who wake up from a dream of luxury and wealth, are dressed southward. It is not important who creates it, who uses it, who learns it, and who promotes it is more important."

"In the past, the world we saw was only this big, and the Han and Hu were enemies, but now the world has become bigger, and we have also won and lost. Look at your personal soldier, he has almost walked half of the world."

As Liu Chengzong said, he pulled out his Yanling saber, which startled Hun Taiji, but saw him look at Qingliang's saber and said: "You and I use the same saber, and you are the same person, but he walked by In those places, the people in those places are different from us.”

"Different people create different cultures, with different strengths and different weaknesses."

"Whether you think they are strong or weak, you have to admit that they can see you and peep at me, but you and I can't see them. Learn. Only when you see them can you know which places are weaker than us and which places are more powerful than us. We are strong, and then we learn, and if we can learn, we will become stronger, and the stones of other mountains can be used to attack jade... I can give you all the support you want, and go to the west for me."

As he spoke, he put the saber back into its sheath, and pushed the saber towards Batur Huntaiji, and he quickly got up to accept the saber in a daze.

Liu Chengzong looked into Hui Taiji's eyes, with a cold smile hidden in his smile: "Look at them."

　good afternoon!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)