Back to Daming to be a genius

Chapter 85 Xu Guangqi

(PS: There are two updates today, and the first one will be delivered.)
"I'm wronged! I'm more wronged than Dou E! I didn't see it at all! If I really saw a girl as beautiful as Miss Ma, how could I be willing to run back right away?" In the panic, the always eloquent Young Master Zhang couldn't help it. Some talk indiscriminately.As a result, as soon as the words came out, Ma Xiangling, who was a standard model and taller than Young Master Zhang, flushed immediately with her pretty face. The claws directly pinched Young Master Zhang's back.Fortunately, the old man in coarse clothes smiled in time and said: "Niece Ma, please calm down. This Mr. Zhang is actually the famous Xinke Tanhua and imperial envoy Zhang Haogu, Mr. Zhang. If you have any misunderstandings, you can sit down and sit down." Come down and talk slowly."

"Uncle Xu, is he Xinke Tanhua and imperial envoy Zhang Haogu?" Zhang Fengyi and Ma Xiangling pointed at Young Master Zhang and asked in surprise.The old man smiled and nodded, Young Master Zhang straightened his clothes, coughed and put on a polite posture, and politely cupped his hands and said: "General Zhang, Miss Ma, yes, Xiaosheng is Zhang Haogu." I never thought about Young Master Zhang The winking eyes were obviously for the blind, but Zhang Fengyi and Ma Xiangling turned their eyebrows upside down at the same time, and cursed in unison, "Shameless stray dog! Get away!"

"Hey...? Miss Ma, Mrs. Zhang, how can you say that about me? Could it be that your parents are also officials of the Donglin Party?" Young Master Zhang, who has very shallow knowledge of history, was a little dumbfounded, thinking that he had offended an official of the Donglin Party again. Children—that's why Zhang Fengyi and Ma Xiangling insulted themselves with words used by the Donglin Party.

"Tanhualang misunderstood. The father of niece Zhang, Master Zhang Quan, Miss Ma's father, General Ma Qiancheng, and mother, General Qin Liangyu, are not members of the Donglin party." : "However, niece Zhang's father-in-law and Miss Ma's father, General Ma Qiancheng Ma, was framed to death by the inner prisoner Qiu Chengyun. Although Qiu Chengyun has been condemned by God, niece Zhang and Miss Ma still hate the inner prisoner to the bone - ——Tan Hua Lang, you are a member of Eunuch Wei, this is well known in the world, niece Zhang and Miss Ma are naturally a little disgusted with you."

"Oh, so that's how it is." Young Master Zhang called out unluckily, no matter where he went, he would meet the old eunuch Wei's enemy?At the same time, Young Master Zhang also quickly came to his senses, bowed his hands to the old man in a coarse long gown, and asked respectfully: "Old man, you call Mrs. Zhang your niece, could it be that you are..."

"That's right, this old man is exactly Xu Guangqi." The old man in the coarse cloth gown smiled, bowed his hands back, and explained with a smile: "Niece Zhang's father, Mr. Zhang Quan Zhang, was a Jinshi of the Jiachen Division in the 32nd year of Wanli, just like the old man. In the same year, they were like brothers. The day before yesterday, Tan Hua Lang sent someone to see him, and it happened that Zhang’s niece just came from a long way from Sichuan and was visiting the old man’s home, so the old man failed to obey the order, and if he was rude, he still asked Tan Hua Lang to make amends.”

"Oh, it turns out that Mr. Xu really has a distinguished guest from Sichuan." Young Master Zhang suddenly realized, and said in his heart that I thought Xu Guangqi was putting on airs and refused to see me. It turned out that there was a guest at home who couldn't get away. It seems that I really blamed him.At this time, Xu Guangqi greeted: "Tanhualang, Mr. Xiao, and Miss Zhang's niece Ma, don't stand there. Please come to the old man's house. If you have any words or misunderstandings, sit down and talk slowly." The hungry and tired Young Master Zhang and his party certainly agreed. Although Zhang Fengyi and Ma Xiangling's sister-in-law hated Young Master Zhang as a eunuch, but for Xu Guangqi's sake, they still resented entering Xu Guangqi's house.

Entering the room, everyone sat down according to their priority. Xu Guangqi ordered his family to cook and serve tea, and at the same time explained to Young Master Zhang why Zhang Fengyi and Ma Xiangling came.It turned out that in the first year of the Apocalypse, Guizhou Tusi She Chongming and An Bangyan rebelled, and Guiyang City was besieged for eleven months. Most of Guizhou and parts of Sichuan were on fire. Although it was only a matter of time before the rebellion was completely quelled with the strong cooperation of the Ming army in Guizhou, it was only a matter of time before the rebels were hit hard in succession. However, the unique terrain of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and the strong strongholds of the rebels gave the Baigan army and the Ming army a lot of trouble. It caused great trouble, and suffered heavy casualties in the battle of attacking fortifications and dangers. However, the red cannons used by the Ming army weighed 1 catties and were difficult to carry, so they could not effectively cooperate with the Ming army in mountain warfare.In order to reduce the loss of the army and speed up the suppression of the rebels, Xu Guangqi's old boss, former minister of the Ministry of War, Zhang Heming, the current governor of Guizhou, and Qin Liangyu, who had seen the power of artillery in the bloody battle in Liaodong, all remembered Xu Guangqi, the No. [-] firearm of the Ming Dynasty. That's why he sent Zhang Fengyi, the daughter-in-law of Qin Liangyu who had a close relationship with Xu Guangqi, to Songjiang to ask Xu Guangqi for countermeasures to see if he could make some light artillery that is convenient for mountain warfare and assist the Baigan army and the Ming army in Guizhou to put down the rebels.Of course, Ma Xiangling and her sister-in-law Zhang Fengyi came to Songjiang together just to be companions on the road and to take care of each other—not because they were attracted by Young Master Zhang's barbaric spirit.

After explaining the reason for Zhang Fengyi and Ma Xiangling's visit, Young Master Zhang also explained the misunderstanding between himself and Ma Xiangling, and swore that he did not see Ma Xiangling in the bath. Give up resentfully.At this time, Xu Guangqi's family had delivered the food, and Young Master Zhang who hadn't eaten for a day immediately rushed forward like a hungry tiger, eating and chomping away his cheeks, but Xu Guangqi didn't care, and just gave Zhang Da The young master re-served the tea so that young master Zhang would not choke, and asked with a smile: "Tan Hua Lang, you first sent someone to summon you, and then you came to the shabby house in person, what is the matter, you must find the old man?"

"There are many reasons for Wansheng to visit Mr. Xu, but the key point is one. Please, Mr. Xu, come out of the mountain again and take up an official position in the court. Wansheng is willing to recommend you for him." Young Master Zhang replied while pawing the brown rice.Before the words were finished, Zhang Fengyi and Ma Xiangling had already hummed together, "Sure enough, a dog can't spit out ivory. I want Uncle Xu to serve Wei Zhongxian. It's a dream!"

"It's not for Nine Thousand Years, it's for the imperial court and the people of the world." Young Master Zhang explained without blushing.But Xu Guangqi still shook his head and said: "I appreciate Lang Tanhua's kindness, but I am old and have no intention of fame. I'm afraid Tanhualang will run away from Songjiang this time."

"Master Xu, don't rush to refuse." Young Master Zhang smiled, pointed to Bo Jue and said, "Master Xu, let me introduce you to a person, this is Brother Bo Jue, Bo Nian, who took the first Jiangnan provincial examination. His personality and hobbies are similar to yours." Bo Jue also kowtowed to Xu Guangqi and said: "The late student Bo Jue has long admired Master Xu's name, and he has the utmost respect for Master Xu. Please, Master Xu, be honored by the late student."

"Young Master Bo, please hurry up." Xu Guangqi's attitude was very kind, and he went to help Bo Jue himself.Bo Jue thanked and stood up, took out another blueprint from his bosom, held it in front of Xu Guangqi with respectful hands, and said in a deep voice: "Master Xu, late-born is stupid and doesn't know what to say. Please take a look at this blueprint, Master Xu. My lord can understand the purpose of Wan Sheng and Master Zhang's visit at a glance."

"What blueprint?" Xu Guangqi curiously took the blueprint, opened it and only glanced at it, Xu Guangqi exclaimed: "The structural blueprint of the musket? What kind of musket is this, why have I never seen it before?" Xu Guangqi couldn't help but look at it carefully. Immediately, he was addicted to it and entered a state of ecstasy. After a long time, Xu Guangqi asked: "Why is there a screw thread in the barrel? This musket has no ignition hole, how to ignite it?"

"Master Xu, please look at one thing first." Young Master Zhang pushed away the dishes in front of him, took out a small spinning top from his arms, and said with a gesture: "Master Xu, please look, this spinning top is like a bullet from a musket. It is not stable, but if it is rotated, it can not only stand firmly, but also maintain stability for a certain period of time. In the same way, if the thread is carved in the barrel, the projectile will be fired close to the barrel and can be rotated In this way, the projectile can not only be shot more accurately, but also the range can be doubled!"

After all, Young Master Zhang added: "Master Xu, you are the No.1 firearm of my Ming Dynasty. You must be very clear why the muskets of our Daming army can't beat Jiannu's bows and arrows on the battlefield, except because the muskets equipped by the Ming army are used In addition to the various reasons of inconvenience and lack of training, the other two major reasons are that the range of muskets is not as good as that of bows and arrows, and that the accuracy of the projectiles fired is too poor. Whether you can hit the enemy can only depend on luck—and this kind of Rifled muskets can fully make up for these shortcomings."

"Can it really make up for these two shortcomings? This has yet to be proven in practice." Xu Guangqi twisted his beard and asked thoughtfully: "What about ignition? This kind of musket has no ignition hole, how to ignite it?"

"You don't need a match to ignite, use a flint to ignite." Young Master Zhang said decisively: "Wan Sheng knows that there is a kind of mechanical ignition, which is to pull the trigger to drive the spring to ignite the fuse, but the structure of this ignition mechanism, Wan Sheng does not know. , that’s why Wansheng came to ask Master Xu to come out of the mountain to help the court solve this problem.” Over there, Bo Jue also cupped his hands and said, “Master Xu, there is still the rifling problem. Both Wansheng and Mr. Zhang thought that Mr. Xu might have a solution, so Mr. Zhang led Wansheng to Songjiang to visit Mr. Xu in the midst of his busy schedule of fundraising and disaster relief."

"The problem of rifling is not impossible. Do you still remember the drill bit invented by Mr. Lu Ban? That thing may help us solve the problem of rifling." Xu Guangqi said thoughtfully.Bo Jue's eyes lit up, and she exclaimed joyfully, "That's right, I forgot this so much? Mr. Lu Ban's drill bit! As long as the steel of the drill bit is hard and tough, it is not hopeless to drill rifling in the barrel!" Young Master Zhang was dumbfounded, "Drills? There were drills in Lu Ban's time? I thought it was later..."

"Master Zhang, where did you get this musket sketch?" Xu Guangqi finally thought of this question.Young Master Zhang didn't blush, and clasped his hands and replied, "Wan Sheng is ashamed, this is something that Wan Sheng came up with inadvertently when he was studying the gun mechanism."

"What? You?" Xu Guangqi was startled at first, then smiled and said, "It is said that Zhang Tanhua has learned a lot and is talented. I still have some doubts. Now it seems that I really underestimated Tanhualang." Young Master Zhang was extremely proud , and pretending to be modest, Zhang Qing over there also rarely praised Master Zhang, "Master Xu, don't look at Zhang Gou Shao who is fooling around all day long, but he is actually quite talented, and he can also say something. Barbarian language, and also taught me two sentences of English——Darling, love Ladangyou.”

"Poor, Xu Guangqi knows foreign languages, can't he also understand English?" Young Master Zhang felt a little guilty.Fortunately, Xu Guangqi only knew Portuguese, so he just smiled and said, "Tanhualang, you are really impressing the old man more and more. I don't know what else Tanhualang knows. Can you teach me a thing or two?"

"Mr. Xu has won the award, and I am ashamed to be a late student." Young Master Zhang blushed rarely, and boasted proudly: "The student has taught himself Western physics, chemistry, mathematics, history and geography, and he has a little superficial understanding, and Mr. Xu, you translated it yourself. The "Elements of Geometry" written by Wan Sheng also read it once or twice, which inspired him a lot."

Xu Guangqi looked at Young Master Zhang up and down, and thought that this imperial envoy who looked like a playboy, a well-known eunuch and running dog, turned out to be full of economic talents, it seems that the old man really misjudged him.However, Young Master Zhang observed Xu Guangqi's impression of him by observing his words and expressions, so he quickly knelt down on his knees, kowtowed and said, "Master Xu, Wansheng wants to benefit the people and make meritorious service for the court, but he suffers from lack of talent and weak strength, so he has not yet achieved his wish." Therefore, Wansheng once again begged Mr. Xu to come out of the mountains again, to assist Wansheng in making firearms, to destroy the Northeast and establish slaves, to expand the territory for the Ming Dynasty, to protect the family and the country for the people, and to taste the students' wishes in life."

"Uncle Xu, you promised to help us make light artillery." Seeing that the situation was not going well, Zhang Fengyi hurriedly stopped it.Ma Xiangling also yelled angrily: "Zhang Haogu, Uncle Xu has already promised us first, you little dog, go away!"

Young Master Zhang was not angry, but turned to Zhang Fengyi and Ma Xiangling and said with a smile: "Madam Zhang, Miss Ma, please don't worry, your affairs will not be delayed. I invite Master Xu to come out of the mountain, not just for the sake of the lower official, but for the whole world." The people of the Ming Dynasty and the army of the Ming Dynasty, the light artillery you need, Master Xu can also cast new light artillery for you after he returns to his official position. Besides, after Master Xu came out of the mountain again, he has the human and financial support of the imperial court to build your light artillery Wouldn't it be easier to come?" After finishing speaking, Young Master Zhang kowtowed respectfully to Xu Guangqi again, and said with tears streaming down his face, "Master Xu, for the sake of the court and the people of Ming Dynasty, I beg you late, come out of the mountain again."

Xu Guangqi bowed his head and remained silent. After a long time, Xu Guangqi said slowly: "Tanhua Lang, you persuade me to go out of the mountain again. I need to think about it all night. You spend the night in the shabby house first. How about I give you an answer tomorrow?"

Young Master Zhang, who had no hope at first, was overjoyed, and hurriedly kowtowed to thank Xu Guangqi, and under the guidance of Xu Guangqi's family, he went to rest in the guest room of Xu Guangqi's house, but there were only three vacant rooms in Xu Guangqi's house, and Ma Xiangling and Zhang Fengyi took one, Xiao Chuan He and Bo Jue took another room, and the remaining room could only be wronged by Young Master Zhang and Zhang Qing.Faced with such a situation, Young Master Zhang was naturally happy in his heart, while Zhang Qing was blushing and did not dare to refuse, so he could only bite the bullet and squeezed into a room with Young Master Zhang.But when he entered the room, Zhang Qing was dumbfounded—there was only one bed in the room.

"Young dog, you sleep on the ground, and I sleep on the bed!" Zhang Qing arranged with a red face.Young Master Zhang looked at the ground and said with a smile: "Brother Zhang, the ground is hard and cold, and there are no quilts or sheets. You want me to catch a cold? We are all men anyway, so what's the point of sleeping in the same bed?"

"Bah! You stink, so I won't sleep in the same bed with you." Zhang Qing pushed Young Master Zhang away with a blushing face, took the lead in jumping onto the bed with his clothes on, and slept on the side of the bed and shouted: "If you dare to come up, I will sleep with you today." I'll fight with you!" Young Master Zhang smiled, pulled a chair and sat by the table, blew out the oil lamp, lay down on the table and fell asleep.Seeing this scene, Zhang Qing breathed a sigh of relief, but also faintly disappointed. Behind the back of the vicious Young Master Zhang, Zhang Qing, who had been riding a fast horse for a day, couldn't resist the fatigue, and soon fell asleep.But just as Zhang Qing fell into a deep sleep, Young Master Zhang who had been snoring sneakily got up and quietly touched Zhang Qing's bedside.

"Damn girl, even though the two of us with the same surname can't marry you, I don't dare to set your mind on it, but you call me a dog and a dog all day long. If I don't take advantage of you, I will have a bad conscience for the rest of my life." Zhang Da The young master muttered in his heart, managed to see the direction, and quietly stretched his claws towards Zhang Qing's chest.But just when Young Master Zhang's claws were about to succeed, there was a loud noise outside the room, "Boom!"

Amid the loud noise, the fragments of broken tiles on the top of Young Master Zhang's head fell in disorder, covering Young Master Zhang's head and body. Young Master Zhang himself was shaken by the huge vibration from the ground and sat down on the ground.When he was dizzy, Young Master Zhang's first reaction was, "No way? Could it be that God saw me molesting a beautiful woman with the same surname as a dislike, so he sent a thunderbolt to strike me?"

(End of this chapter)