Cutting over the end of the Ming Dynasty: a dog-leg knife at the beginning

Chapter 674 The Deadly Brimstone Bomb
Tsushima Island was defeated, but the loot obtained was disappointingly small. Turning the entire city of Tsushima upside down and counting all the broken copper and iron, it is only barely paying back.Yang Menglong was quite frustrated, he was still hoping to grab a ticket and get tens of millions of taels of silver flowers, but he didn't expect that these guys were poorer than beggars, but fortunately they agreed to help the Dutch conquer Japan and there was a reward , and after opening up the Japanese nationals, it will be more convenient for the Huizhou and Cantonese merchants behind him to dump goods in Japan, and they can also get a lot of silver every year, otherwise this trip will really lose a lot of money.He was very confused: "No matter how you say it, Japan is a country of silver, and the shogunate has supported [-] banner warriors for many years. The family should be very good. How can it be so poor?"

Wu Sheng couldn't laugh or cry: "My lord, who did you hear that Japan is very rich?"

Yang Menglong said: "I always thought they were very rich!" He was embarrassed to say that he was misled by online games such as the Warring States Period, thinking that Japanese samurai were rich and lived a good life, and they supported [-] banner samurai for many years The Japanese shogunate is even more wealthy...

Wu Sheng coughed and said: "According to what I know, Japan is not as rich as you imagined. It is true that Japan produces millions of taels of silver every year, but most of these silver flowed into Daming through Hongyi. There are very few people who really flow into the Japanese people. Therefore, when the shogunate paid their samurai salaries, they rarely gave out silver or copper coins, and they all used brown rice to offset the number."

Yang Menglong cried out: "Brown rice!?"Grandma, you guys are a bit classy, ​​okay?Even if you have no money, you can learn from ancient Rome, and pay some salt and pepper as salary, right?Send brown rice directly?vulgar!

Wu Sheng said seriously: "It is indeed brown rice. An ordinary warrior can receive ninety kilograms of brown rice every month. These ninety kilograms of brown rice are the entire source of income for their family."

Yang Menglong grinned: "My mother, it's no wonder they are so poor, with such a stingy boss, it's impossible to be poor!"

The ancient history of Japan is a history of tragedy. They spent more than 2000 years telling the world what it means to be "there is no saddest, only sadder"—the words are still the same until now.The characteristic of this ghost place is that there are many mountains and little land, the land is barren, and the agricultural production is greatly restricted. It is really not easy to eat enough... Well, with this one, there is no need to talk about the following. A full stomach, talking about technology and culture are all free.Japan lacks iron ore resources, Japan's arable land area and output have been unable to increase, Japan lacks advanced technology, Japan lacks... In short, it lacks everything, except volcanic earthquakes, typhoons and plagues.Until the Ming Dynasty, Japan still did not have its own currency, and could only obtain copper coins through trade with the Ming Dynasty. The whole of Japan was polarized, and Edo was extremely prosperous. , Bronze mirrors, silk, porcelain from Ming Dynasty, spices from Europe and other goods are flooding the market. Samurai wearing two katana swords, one long and one short, swagger through the market, coupled with exquisite pavilions and temples, beautiful landscape scenery, and The cherry blossoms are as colorful as snow, and the whole Edo is like a paradise on earth.But after leaving Edo, it’s a completely different world. The Ming Dynasty ruled one side of the country, bandits were as numerous as a cow’s hair, and the sallow and emaciated farmers endured as much as [-]% to [-]% of the tax. They worked hard and worked hard without rest all year round. It's hell to have to take bamboo knives and bamboo guns to help out.

The Japanese shogunate has [-] samurai with high martial arts skills, and these samurai are the foundation of the shogunate.However, the Japanese samurai are not involved in agriculture and business, they only know how to practice martial arts or kill people all day long. The salary issued by the shogunate is their only source of income.It is not difficult to imagine how difficult it is to raise so many warriors who only eat and do nothing.Naturally, the shogunate, which was equally arrogant, could not afford so much money to pay these samurai, and could only use rice to offset the number.Don’t underestimate rice, it’s a luxury item for most Japanese people, have you seen the movie “Seven Samurai”?A village was threatened by bandits. In order to resist the bandits, the village chief went to the town to recruit warriors to help them defend the village. The recruitment condition he offered was two meals of rice a day—this was the only thing their village could get. Shot something out.What is frustrating is that, relying on that little rice, he really recruited seven warriors, and finally defeated the bandits with less victories and more!Two meals of rice a day can make seven samurai fight with more than twenty bandits, which shows how precious rice is in Japan.A banner samurai earns as much as [-] shi of Lumi per year. Of course, even if the shogunate is sold, it cannot be paid so much. As many as twenty shi, this expenditure accounted for nearly half of the shogunate's fiscal revenue.The twenty shi Lumi is the only source of income for the Banner warriors. The Banner warriors rely on it for food, clothing and social intercourse. This Lumi is definitely not enough, so they rely on pawns and housekeeping for others. There are not a few warriors.

The banner samurai in Edo had such a miserable life, not to mention the ghostly place of Tsushima Island, how much property Yang Menglong can copy here is called hell!
When the robbery hit the beggar's nest, Yang Menglong was very depressed. He led the troops on board and left in desperation, throwing Tsushima Island to the North Koreans to toss slowly.Anyway, after admiring the "wonderful" performance of the North Korean sailors on the pier of Tsushima Island, he has given up any hope for the combat effectiveness of the North Korean sailors. It is purely a joke to take such pig teammates to attack the four major islands of Japan. , you stay on Tsushima Island and play slowly.

The Ming army contributed the most in the Battle of Tsushima Island, but gained the least.The Dutch captured more than 3000 young men, and North Korea got the strategic springboard they dreamed of. Only the Ming army got nothing but a pile of broken copper and iron.The only reasonable spoils were more than 1000 live chickens. After boarding the boat, everyone hurriedly killed the chickens and stewed them. The taste was delicious, the meat was tender and refreshing, and they wanted to eat more.

While everyone was eating chicken and chicken soup, the fleet sailed out of the port and headed for the four major islands of Japan.At the flagship, Yang Menglong asked someone to make boiled chicken, and made spicy soy sauce for Alfonso and Colonel Metz to eat. The two also brought out their collection of wine and barley beer, and everyone drank to their heart's content.After a few glasses of wine, Yang Menglong began to vomit bitterness: "I said, buddies, you are too mean, and you didn't tell me the truth about Japan!?"

Alfonso pretended to be confused: "What do you mean, Governor?"

Yang Menglong said: "You didn't tell me that Japan is as poor as a beggar! If I knew they were so poor, I wouldn't send troops to fight them even if they killed me!"

Colonel Metz said with a smile on his face: "Governor Yang, calm down! The Japanese on these small islands are of course very poor. They are too remote. They can't even eat rice. They eat fish besides fish. But Merchants and dignitaries gathered in the Edo area of ​​Japan, and merchants from all over the world were doing business there, and countless gold and silver goods were imported and exported every year, so it can be said that they are extremely rich!"

Alfonso said: "Yes, yes, when we reach Edo, we can collect a lot of loot by just grabbing a few blocks! Yang, let your soldiers not be discouraged, the richest city is waiting for them..."

Thousands of miles away in Europe, on the Adriatic Sea, Catherine and her fellow Venetian admirals and members of the city-state council were all nervously watching the disused merchant ship as huge as a hill in the distance, while the sailors were busy closing the doors. The 130mm smoothbore gun was pushed into position and aimed at the merchant ship.The governor asked Catherine a little anxiously: "Dear Miss Dandolo, is this gun really so powerful that it can sink such a large warship in one fell swoop?"

Catherine said: "Dear governor, you just have to rest assured, you will soon see how deadly the power of this artillery from the east is. No warship in the world can withstand a direct hit from it, let alone a single ship. Sailors in a navy can stay at their posts after being hit by it... Look, it's started!"

Over there, the gunner had already loaded the shells and packets of gunpowder into the barrel. The captain gave an order, and twelve 130mm naval guns made heart-pounding roars at the same time. The flames made the entire battleship seem to retreat a bit.Twelve brimstone bombs flew through the air and slammed into the enemy ship 600 meters away. Two-thirds of the shells missed, causing high water columns on the sea surface, but there were still four shells. It hit the merchant ship directly, smashing four large holes in the hull.The governor nodded slightly, and one-third of the shells fired directly in the first round. This hit rate is already very ideal, and even the best cannon in Venice can't do it.The admirals were also overjoyed. With such a large caliber and such a high hit rate, if a battleship is equipped with this kind of artillery, its combat effectiveness can only be described as terrifying!
Catherine stopped the second round of salvo on the grounds that it was not necessary. One salvo was enough to destroy the merchant ship, and there was no need to waste expensive sulfur bombs.Everyone expressed doubts about her words. It is not easy to sink a warship in an era without high-explosive grenades and incendiary bombs. It seemed really insignificant, often the two fleets bombarded each other for a long time, everyone's decks were full of flesh and blood, the sails were folded, and the number of warships that were actually sunk was only a dozen or a few.The displacement of this merchant ship is [-] tons. Is four shells enough to sink such a big ship?

Catherine—to be precise, the brimstone bombs did not give the Venetians any chance to question them. In about twenty seconds, thick smoke rose from the merchant ship, which quickly merged into a black column of smoke and rose into the sky. The bilge of the battleship rushed up and climbed onto the deck. The rigging and sails became the best fire starters, and the powder kegs placed on the ship to simulate the real scene after the battleship was hit exploded one after another, making huge roars one after another. , The entire merchant ship was blown to pieces, and large groups of fireballs were thrown around.Flames swept across the deck and climbed up to the top of the mast. The huge sails turned into torches, and the high flames could be clearly seen from twenty or thirty kilometers away!

The Venetians watched all this in stunned silence. They couldn't believe that such a large ship was destroyed by just four cannonballs!Admiral de Winter, commander of the navy, broke out in cold sweat on his forehead. He took a breath of cold air and murmured: "This ship is completely destroyed even if it doesn't sink... Who dares to stay on top of such a fierce fire? It's scary. ,terrible!"

The speaker also took a breath, and said in a low voice: "If it was a real warship, it would have been torn apart by now, because the gunpowder stored on the real warship is several times that of this target ship. When the gunpowder is detonated, the entire battleship will be blown to pieces!"

The governor threw down the telescope and said excitedly to Catherine: "Miss Dandolo, you have given the city-state the weapon we dreamed of to conquer the country. It's great! You take the time to rest, and I will have people step up to acquire the Eastern governor." You need to set out as soon as the collection is complete! Not only must you bring those goods, but also enough gold coins. We must purchase more naval guns and artillery shells before other countries react. The future of the city-state depends on it. !”

(End of this chapter)