lovenovelstory Chapter 110 The Red Barbarian Cannon
Chapter 110 The Red Barbarian Cannon
Chapter 110 The Red Barbarian Cannon
"Get moving!"
The overseer lashed out with his whip, startling several laborers who were taking a break. They quickly straightened up and continued working.
On the watchtower, the soldiers heard the commotion and glanced in this direction.
These laborers were all rebels captured during the suppression of the rebellion, numbering more than 2,800.
There were more than 3,600 captured rebels, and after Zhang Kun executed the leaders, he carried out a five-day round of killings.
One person out of every five is randomly selected and killed to intimidate the remaining four.
Zhang Kun assigned the remaining rebels to hard labor camps, where they were to serve at least three years.
The river work camps and bureaus assigned all the most arduous, exhausting, and physically damaging jobs—those that didn't require skills—to hard laborers.
Out of a perverse sense of humor, Zhang Kun also gave these labor leaders nicknames based on the 108 heroes of the Water Margin.
The Iron Heavenly King, which Yu Hongzhi used, was not included in the list of figures who opposed the surrender of the emperor, such as the Flower Monk, the Tiger-Slaying Pilgrim, and the Earthly Tai Sui.
Only those who support the surrender are designated as Timely Rain, Jade Kirin, Wise Star, Thunderbolt, and Golden Spearman.
Although the work was arduous, the labor camps provided them with enough to eat and wear, and some of the poorer ones even lived better than before.
Aside from a few who escaped due to superstition and heresy, most of the laborers were quite honest.
The canal, a flat-bottomed shallow boat.
Ning Xuan'er and Sun Shuyun, their faces beaming with joy, were chattering away in front of a home decor catalog.
They no longer needed to work for free for the Qingxia and Hongmei ships, so they left the capital and went to Anping to participate in the founding of the Yubing ship.
What pleased them even more was that they no longer had to live under Cheng Wenqing's roof, but instead moved into Anpingdu's new house with Zhang Kun.
In Zhangjiawan, Zhang Kun would stay either at the Liangshuihe camp, at the arresting officer's office, or at his eunuch godfather's house.
There is no need to buy a new house.
Back in the capital, Zhang Kun had already transferred the vacant new residence in Liulichang to the Hehai shipyard and rented it to Guangwen.
Hao Dang flagship store.
When I return to the capital, I can stay at Cheng Wenqing's residence in Xique Hutong, Zhengdongfang.
The flat-bottomed shallow boat stopped at a small dock where Qinglong Bay and the canal meet, where several horse-drawn carriages were already waiting.
Ning Xuan'er and Sun Shuyun rode in a carriage along Qinglong Bay, which was widening its waterway, towards "Xin'anpingdu".
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Several loud noises suddenly startled the two people who were discussing how to decorate their new house.
"What's going on outside?"
Ning Xuan'er lifted the curtain, her face pale with fright, and tried to remain calm as she spoke to the servants outside the carriage.
"Reporting to Madam,"
The servant pointed north and explained to Ning Xuan'er, "The artillery range over there is test-firing cannons. I forgot to tell you beforehand, please forgive me."
"It's alright, it's alright."
Ning Xuan'er lowered the curtain, patted her chest, and complained to Sun Shuyun, "Why is my husband setting up a sex depot near the new house?"
Does this mean we'll be startled by thunderous cannon fire every now and then?
"Don't worry, little sister."
These days of living under someone else's roof have greatly strengthened the bond between Sun Shuyun and Ning Xuan'er. She smiled and comforted her, saying, "How could my husband not have thought of this? This artillery range is probably a temporary setup. We'll definitely need to move some of the artillery pieces in the future."
Xin'anpingdu is less than a mile from Jiu'anpingdu and is adjacent to Qinglong Bay.
Zhang Kun chose a high ground on the outskirts of Xin'an Pingdu for his new residence and named it Hehaiyuan.
First, the high ground was leveled into a terrace, and outside the outer wall was a slope similar to the bastion dike.
The outer wall is not high, but it is very thick. The entire manor's outer wall is a square quadrilateral.
Each corner extends a simple platform resembling a triangular fortress, on which cannons can be mounted.
The manor entrance has a double gate, behind which is a screen wall that serves as a barbican.
Between the outer and inner walls were the manor's warehouses, watchtowers, stables, wells, reservoirs, vegetable gardens, and small drill grounds.
There are also servants' and maids' dormitories, which are very well built and each has its own separate entrance and courtyard.
The inner walls were also very thick, and higher and wider than the outer walls, allowing for the mounting of cannons at every point.
"Is this...is this Zhuangzi?"
After entering the manor, Ning Xuan'er and Sun Shuyun looked around. Ning Xuan'er couldn't help but complain, "It looks more like a military fortress used for fighting."
Once inside, the walls are different; the floor is paved with bluestone slabs.
The mansion, with its five rooms and seven bays, features a gable roof and is surrounded by guest courtyards, side courtyards, inner warehouses, and a library.
Like the Sanshan Street flagship store of Nanjing Jinyunhao, it makes extensive use of brick and stone structures to enhance load-bearing capacity and reduce the need for hidden columns.
Extensive use of lattice doors and hinged windows, along with screens for partitions, creates a spacious and bright environment.
The interior was completely empty, waiting for the two ladies of the house to decorate it.
The two began to discuss excitedly, and several cannon shots rang out, but they did not disturb their interest in the slightest.
Temporary artillery position.
Zhang Kun lowered his binoculars, shook his head slightly, and looked at the cannons several dozen paces away:
These three bronze muzzle-loading six-pound cannons were purchased by Zhang Kun from the Bugalao Cannon Foundry in Xiangshan'ao through Xu Guangqi's channels.
After several rounds of test firing, Zhang Kun discovered that the differences between these three cannons were as significant as those between cannons from the Ming Dynasty.
Unfortunately, the famous Gribovar system was not formed until nearly 150 years later, during the Seven Years' War.
That was during the First Industrial Revolution, when the spinning jenny and Watt's improved steam engine had already been developed.
Western Europe today still operates under the Devalier system, just like in the Ming Dynasty, where each door was handcrafted.
The artillery was too heavy, resulting in poor mobility. Moreover, its specifications were inconsistent, making standardization and modularization impossible.
However, after the division of Charlemagne's Frankish Kingdom, Western Europe was in a state of fragmentation and constant warfare for a long period of time.
Starting with the Hundred Years' War between England and France at the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming dynasties, the English Civil War and the Italian Wars that affected the whole of Western Europe.
A series of wars between the Ottomans and Habsburgs in the Balkans and the Mediterranean, and religious wars such as the Huguenot Wars in France.
Then there's the Dutch War of Independence and the naval rivalry between England and Spain.
And the impending "World War Zero," the Thirty Years' War, and the English bourgeois revolution.
The wars were incessant, far exceeding the intensity of the previous Middle Ages.
All sides possessed cannons, warships, and castles, and the related technologies continued to advance under the stimulation of war.
And what about the Ming Dynasty? It enjoyed a long period of peace—at least compared to Western Europe, it was relatively peaceful.
The main enemies, the Tatars and Jurchens to the north, had no cannons, no warships, and no castles.
The Tatars even abandoned their ancestors' renowned heavy cavalry, which had made them famous throughout Eurasia, and focused on moving as fast as possible.
The Japanese pirates in the east had warships, but their technology was inferior to that of Korea, so they could not promote technological improvement in the Ming Dynasty.
They did have some skill with castles, but only fought a few at the end of the Imjin War.
There were some improvements, such as adding firing ports for the bird system in the reference narrow space and adding platform fortifications in the reference crank, but not many.
The chieftains in the southwest rebelled, and the castles were easy to defend but difficult to attack, mainly due to the terrain advantage.
The Ming army could easily destroy those castles by simply transporting cannons up there, which did not promote technological advancement.
Therefore, first came the Fulang cannon, and then the Hongyi cannon. From the Jiajing period onwards, the Ming Dynasty had been importing Western European cannons.
Besides counterfeiting, they are also continuously purchasing Portuguese-made goods from Xiangshan'ao.