The Great Bandit in Kangxi Year

Chapter 229 Alertness
The new type of revolver cavalry was produced in less than half a month. In order to solve the airtightness and safety problems, the scientific research personnel of the empire specially made a cover that can be lifted, which just combined the revolver magazine with the breech of the barrel. The whole part is wrapped so that it will not emit gunpowder smoke and sparks to damage the shooter's eyes when shooting, and the cover must be lifted when loading.

However, although Thunder Mercury has been manufactured, it will take some time for it to be used in actual combat, and the gun still has the problem of low power, and it has not been mass-produced, and it is constantly being improved.

Since it is a cavalry gun, it cannot be made too long. The researchers changed the angle of the handle so that the handle is at an eighty-degree angle to the body of the gun. It looks a bit like a submachine gun of later generations, and it is initially estimated that the cost of the gun will reach 100. One silver dollar, this number is more than twice that of the previous musket, which is also unavoidable, but it is within Jiang Tao's tolerance, but in order to be more safe and reliable, it has not been equipped for a while.

But recently, the scientific research center of the empire has developed a new type of rocket car based on the rocket technology of Ming Dynasty.

This vehicle is actually a refit of the previous tank. It has forty independent and neatly arranged 81mm gun holes on the side, which can launch rockets with a diameter of 80mm, and they can be launched almost simultaneously. This vehicle was named Rocket by Jiang Tao. The car, the whole car weighs three thousand catties, needs four horses to pull it.

The rocket is 1.5 meters long, the whole body is wrapped with iron sheet, the first half is equipped with granular black powder and iron marbles, and the second half is used for driving. The explosion has a huge destructive force on buildings and densely populated people.

However, the combat distance is only 1000 meters, which means that it is best used to deal with fixed targets, and because the delayed fire may go out halfway, sometimes there will be duds, but because the empire has relatively high quality requirements, the probability of duds is 1%. [-]/[-].

The biggest flaw is the high cost. A rocket is worth 8000 silver dollars, and the rocket car costs [-] silver dollars to launch once.

Therefore, the empire did not equip a lot of equipment, but only equipped the first special warfare division. This division was newly formed in the past year. Single-soldier combat, whether it is field survival warfare, jungle warfare, or night raid warfare, are the most elite troops in the empire.

This army is directly under the emperor's army. It has one hundred rocket vehicles, three hundred tiger squatting guns, one hundred 100mm infantry guns, and everyone has two long and short guns. It has been hidden by Jiang Tao. To fight, Jiang Tao is going to send them to the battlefield.

.......
Heavy snowfall ushered in the first year of Huaxing. After the relaxation of the new year, the entire empire began to run rapidly again.

Facing the huge event of moving the capital this year, the northern provinces are both happy and worried.

Compared with other provinces, the empire's control over the northern provinces is slightly weaker, but when the capital of the empire is moved to Beijing, it will be another situation.

The empire's heavy industry is developing, and iron production has been surplus, so that four-wheeled iron carriages are now popular in the empire.

In addition to being satisfied with the empire's weapon manufacturing and machine manufacturing, steel products only have a small surplus. Jiang Tao has always been greedy for the profits of the arms trade, so he moved his mind.

Exporting advanced muskets to other countries is absolutely not allowed by Jiang Tao, but exporting some steel knives is not a big problem. Under the intervention of the empire, Qijia knives made of pure steel are included in the trade items .

As for the importing countries, Jiang Tao also went through screening, and first aimed at North Korea. Ten thousand military Qi family knives were shipped to North Korea, and the price of one was sold for more than 200 silver dollars, which was nearly ten times higher, and the supply was still in short supply.

The main reason is that the knife is not only sharp and strong, but also generous and beautiful. When a general Japanese long knife and a military Qijia knife are cut against each other, the Japanese long knife must be broken.

For North Korean soldiers who want to make money in Japan, they definitely want to own this knife, but Jiang Tao only sold [-] military Qijia knives to North Korea, and [-] military Qijia knives to Laos, Annan and other countries. Knife, made some small money.

However, the development momentum of the light industry in the empire was too strong, and the country could not absorb so many goods at all, resulting in a pile of goods, which caused a series of adverse consequences.

The development of industry is most afraid that the goods produced cannot be sold. Because the light industry of the empire uses steam engine technology to save labor, the cost of goods is far lower than that of all countries in the world, including leather shoes, cotton cloth, clothing, and various drinks. , mirrors, daily necessities and handicrafts, etc.

However, the empire’s colonies are only Korea and Japan. Japan does not import oil and salt, and North Korea is a small country, so it can’t sell much. Jiang Tao had to send envoys to threaten Annan, Laos, Siam and other countries. These countries used to be Chinese vassals. Colonial forces have gradually infiltrated these countries, but China's influence and deterrence are still far greater than those of the West.

One by one, they sent envoys to pay tribute to the Dahua Empire again, but Burma did not come. The Dahua Emperor was furious and ordered all the vassal states to go back and form a coalition to defeat Burma and divide Burma's land and population equally. Otherwise, it would be with Dahua The empire can't get through.

The kings of these vassal states have mixed feelings about this. Everyone has ambitions for land and population, but the new king of Myanmar, Wu Shifan, is not easy to mess with. The mighty Siam has been defeated, but the even more powerful Dahua Empire is not Those who dared to defy, hurriedly assembled their troops to prepare for war, and for a while the whole Southeast Asia was devastated.

In a month's time, Annan, Champa, Laos, and Siam formed a four-nation coalition force, and Myanmar, which had just settled down, immediately fell into war again.

During this period, the merchants of the empire quietly dumped goods to these countries. The local small workshops in these countries were rivals, and most of them could not continue to operate and went bankrupt.

In order to improve the combat effectiveness of the Allied Forces of the Four Nations, the Dahua Empire sold a batch of shotguns seized from the Manchus. Although these countries liked the muskets produced in the West, the Emperor Dahua had to buy them because of the face of the Dahua Emperor.

Jiang Tao was very satisfied with the attitudes of the countries, and presented a small portion of high-quality silk to the kings of the four countries. After all, the war-torn countries are good for the empire, especially when the empire is about to carry out a large-scale war to destroy the Qing Dynasty.

Moreover, Jiang Tao's biggest goal is to make it a dumping ground for the empire's goods, and to suppress Wu Shifan's strength so that he cannot invade the southern border of the empire.

At this time, among the four countries, Siam has the largest territory and the strongest strength.

In fact, after the 16th century, Western colonialism gradually penetrated into Siam. In 1516, Portugal and the Ayutthaya Dynasty signed the first treaty, stipulating that the Portuguese could live, do business and preach in Ayutthaya City, Tanasarim, Moji, Pattani, Liukhun and other places. In 1598, Spain and Siam signed a treaty of commerce. In 1612, Britain was allowed to open a trading house in Pattani. In 1617, Holland and Siam signed a trade treaty.Especially during the reign of King Narei (1656-1688), the Greek C. Valkang assumed the important positions of foreign trade director and finance minister of the Ayutthaya dynasty. French troops move into Siam, taking control of Bangkok and Mae Chit.

In other words, the Netherlands does not have much control over these countries. They have already felt the increasingly tense maritime situation. They can only turn a blind eye to the Dahua Empire's violation of the agreement to intervene in Southeast Asian affairs, but they always Long ago, he applied to William III to detain the craftsmen and naval officers of the Great China Empire in order to seize the handle of the Great China Empire.

So much so that the personnel and naval officers sent by the Great China Empire to the Netherlands to study shipbuilding technology have not yet returned to sea.

Jiang Wushang and Gong Kaijun were full of anger. At this time, the Dutch side obviously slowed down the speed of shipbuilding, so that the warship that should have been built in October last year has not been completed until now.

Regarding this matter, Jiang Wushang did not make any changes. After all, it is related to the lives of thousands of people, and it is not the elite navy of the empire, but the excellent boatmen and designers of the empire. There cannot be any damage. Jiang Wushang thought of the prince How dare you do something reckless.

The Dutch side not only increased the surrounding defense force, but also prohibited the imperial personnel from going out at will. Jiang Wushang kept his face on the surface, but secretly bribed the local businessman and sent away his own messenger. I hope King Huaxing can know the situation here. However, the situation is far away, and it will take at least half a year before the news can be sent to the empire.

On the other hand, Jiang Wushang ordered everyone to secretly guard against the Dutch army's surprise attack on his side, and brought a few capable soldiers to meet William III, but unfortunately they were turned away again.

At this time, William III was having a quarrel with the Great Speaker of the United Provinces. The Great Speaker Envelt severely criticized: "Your Excellency, the seizure of the envoys and warships of the Ming Empire has seriously violated the professional ethics of the Dutch. The loss outweighs the gain. I really don't know what will happen if I offend the ancient Eastern Empire?"

"This!" William III retorted weakly, with a very ugly face, "According to the intelligence of the Far East Fleet and the United Nations, the British and French special envoys have arrived in Daming. The United Provinces are very dangerous, and according to reports from the Far East Fleet, the Emperor Dahua is very aggressive, so we have to guard against it at this critical moment."

"No, the United Provinces won. As long as we maintain professional integrity and defeat Britain, France and other countries, we can still monopolize Dahua's trade, but if you detain these people, the empire's situation will be even more dangerous. Even if there are three more ships For a first-class battleship, the situation cannot be changed, and the most important thing is to offend the emperor of Dahua, and then it will be very difficult to trade with Dahua." Great Speaker Envelt persuaded earnestly.

He added: "Don't forget the Dutch business rules, otherwise no one will dare to do business with the Dutch."

"Business rules?" William III closed his eyes immediately, lost in memory.

From 1596 to 1598, a well-known man named Barentsz, a Dutch sea captain, tried to find a route to Asia from the north.He passed Sanwenya, now a Russian island, but they were trapped by the frozen sea.

Sanya is located within the Arctic Circle, where Captain Barents and 17 Dutch sailors spent eight months of long winter.They removed the decks of the boats for fuel to maintain their body temperature in the freezing cold of minus 8 degrees; they hunted for clothing and food to survive.

In such harsh and dangerous conditions, 8 people died.But the Dutch merchants did an unimaginable thing. They left the goods entrusted to them by others, and among these goods were clothes and medicines that could save their lives.

From winter to spring, the surviving merchants finally brought the goods back to the Netherlands almost intact, and delivered them to the consignor.They used their lives as the price, kept their faith, and created the business rules passed down to future generations.At that time, such an approach also brought obvious benefits to Dutch merchants, that is, they won the world market for seaborne trade.

King William III opened his eyes suddenly, shot a terrifying light, and sighed in a flash: "Well, resume the construction of the three first-class battleships as soon as possible, and then send them back quickly. Emperor Hua, I really don't know if this decision is right or wrong?"

"Well, the United Provinces have recently made a lot of money relying on the special products of the Eastern Empire, and allocated part of it to build the latest warships. I have a bad instinct. Britain, France and other countries will not let it go this time."

"Okay, sooner or later we will fight. There is only one overlord on the sea, so you don't have to worry about it." Great Speaker Envelt was not worried, and encouraged him loudly. Fighting for maritime trade is the war that all Dutch people like.

But Jiang Wushang didn't know this, but in the afternoon of that day, the Dutch people became friendly again.

Next, the construction of three first-class battleships restarted, but it was not completed until May of the first year of Huaxing.

On the morning of May [-]rd in the first year of Huaxing, tens of thousands of Dutch people flocked to the shipyard, even King William III and the Great Speaker came to watch the Hangzhou, Suzhou and Jiangning together with the Chinese there. The launching ceremony of the sailing battleship...

On the track of the dock, the hulls of the three first-class battleships were surrounded by various ribbons, fluttering with the sea breeze.

At this moment, more than [-] soldiers from the Black Dragon Fleet were wearing the white military uniform of the Dahua Empire Navy, wearing large caps, leather boots, white gloves, sabers around their waists, and armed with blunderbusses. On the ground, don't be angry and prestige.

They were all very excited, but stood there motionless. After three years away from home, they could finally go home.

A first-class battleship has hundreds of guns of various types. A battleship like this requires at least 800 men. In fact, some of these soldiers are not used to Dutch battleships, but after years of study, they have become habits.

William III sighed secretly, and was very worried, muttering to himself: "Although the shipbuilding technology of the Dahua Empire is not very good, the navy soldiers are really good."

"Yes, their navy soldiers are all professional, while our navy only has officers who are professional. At the same time, it seems that they are better than our navy, but naval warfare requires a lot of experience. However, these children have been fighting for a few years. It is really not easy to persevere in training and learning." The Great Speaker also nodded.

"This is worth learning. Letting them learn the technology of first-class battleships is the biggest mistake of the United Provinces."

"Oh no, Your Excellency the Consul, Britain and France also possess these technologies, and the warships built by France are stronger than ours. They will not hesitate to teach the ancient Eastern Empire in order to monopolize trade, so the Netherlands does not suffer." The Great Speaker has a different opinion.

William III sighed inwardly, and said loudly, "Let's start the launching ceremony."

Immediately, the three first-class battleships were pushed to the edge of the dock track, and they slowly slid towards the sea along the track.Soon, the stern of the ship entered the sea first, and then slowly the bow also entered the sea safely.Under the traction of inertia, the three battleships drove more than 100 meters away on the sea outside the dock, and then slowly stopped on the sea.

Successful launch!

Jiang Wushang and others finally breathed a sigh of relief. This is the future hope of the empire. With the shipbuilding technology of the Netherlands, the empire will design more powerful warships. Credit the Dutchman.

Lei Dong's applause immediately rang out.

Thousands of sailors boarded the ship immediately. After several days of testing, the overall structural test of the battleship was normal. Except that the battleship was several times larger than the Seal-class cruiser, the mast was high, and the hull length, everything else was normal.

They had already practiced on the warship of the Dutch side, and after a few days of training, they finally made the warship move quickly.

It was supposed to go through several months of sea trials, but Jiang Wushang was eager to go home, so he gave up, but something happened on the way, and the Dutch side wanted to compensate for the loss.

Thousands of craftsmen have followed and learned the whole process of battleships, and have been able to independently build first-class battleships.

Before that, Jiang Wushang specially purchased a large number of books and experimental instruments, and recruited a group of scientists. Everything was ready, Jiang Wushang bid farewell to the Netherlands and returned to China.

William III specially dispatched [-] cruisers and five third-class battleships to escort.

The return fleet entered the Atlantic mightily, Jiang Wushang stood on the bow of the Jiangning and secretly worried that the Dutch were unreliable, and pirates were rampant on the vast sea, so he wondered if he could return home unscathed?

(End of this chapter)