Daming: I asked you to hang yourself, but I didn’t ask you to rebuild the Ming Dynasty

That's it, not counting the property of the four families outside the city!

Since ancient times, as long as Chinese people have made money, they like to buy land outside the city, recruit servants to work on it, and send tribesmen to take care of it. This is the so-called "buying a farm."

Although there is not much money left in these manors, there are quite a lot of cattle and grain.

If it is a big family, they will buy land and build manors in other counties, even other mansions and other provinces.

Such as Hui merchants.

Huizhou merchants are the largest merchants in the country, and even the largest merchants in the world during this period!

They bought land all over the country, and built majestic Huizhou merchants' guilds in almost every county to gather the people of Huizhou.

In most cities, Huizhou merchants' guild halls are taller and more powerful than county and government offices!

There are even buildings built with green strips of stone that exceed the legal limit!

Hui merchants and Shanxi merchants were the top merchant groups in the Ming Dynasty.

There are Huizhou merchants and Shanxi merchants guilds all over the country.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing army brutally plundered most of the wealthy families in the country, leaving only Shanxi and Huizhou merchants intact.

It goes without saying what Shanxi merchants did during the establishment of the Qing Dynasty. The dirty things they did were known throughout the country.

However, Huizhou merchants are rarely mentioned.

Because no one dares to say...

There was a family among the Huizhou merchants who openly donated tens of millions of taels of silver to the Qing Dynasty, but secretly donated at least three times more.

What did you get in exchange for bending your knees and lowering your head?

The maniac who destroyed cultural relics visited Jiangnan seven times and completely deprived his family of everything. Finally, he forced his family to donate 40 taels. After he couldn't come up with any more, his family was confiscated and exterminated!

This "Old Man Shiquan" was frightened to death by the White Lotus Uprising. Only 40 years later, Western artillery bombs opened the door to the country, and ten years later, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rose with great vigor.

Huizhou, a battleground between the two sides, was plundered by the Qing army and the Taiping army in turns...

In the end, the Qing court supported by Huizhou merchants became the sword wielder of their decline.

The last leader of the Huizhou merchants barely regained his glory for a moment in the late Qing Dynasty, but was forced to death by the Qing court, and the Huizhou merchants came to an end.

……

Li Ruogui, the commander of Jinyiwei, walked in happily. He held a tray high and said happily:

"Your Majesty, I found a treasure while searching my house!"

"Oh?"

Zhu Youjian came to his senses and signaled Wang Chengen to take it and bring it up.

He lifted up the red silk cloth and took a look, and a smile suddenly appeared on his lips.

I saw an exquisitely crafted handgun lying on the tray.

……

In the Palace Museum of later generations, there are four-hand guns made in the 12th year of Hongwu of Taizu, the 19th year of Yongle of Chengzu, the ninth year of Hongzhi of Xiaozong, and the Wanli year of Shenzong (the year names are worn and cannot be seen clearly).

And these guns are all marked with numbers.

These handguns gradually shrank from a total length of 45 centimeters to a total length of 25 centimeters.

From a practical perspective, it is becoming more and more suitable for generals to use.

The blunderbuss in the tray is different from the blunderbuss in the Ming Dynasty's army.

Daming firearms use a matchlock to ignite the fire, which is also commonly known as a matchlock gun.

The one in the tray is small and compact, and the dragon's mouth raised high is not a device for holding a match rope, but a brown flint.

This turned out to be a flint pistol!

Zhu Youjian picked it up and took a look, and saw two lines of small words inlaid with silver wire on the butt of the mahogany gun:

"In the 16th year of Chongzhen in Meng Qiu, Bi Shi tabooed Meng Hou's disciple Zhang Jimeng Zao."

Zhu Youjian was stunned when he saw this, and thought hurriedly in his mind:

Bi Menghou?

Who is this person? Why don't you have the slightest impression?

"Who is this Marquis Bi Meng?"

Zhu Youjian pointed to the inscription and asked the officials.

Bi Menghou?

The ministers thought carefully and again...

There are too few conditions!

Judging from the inscription, the maker should be the apprentice of a man named Bi.

The difficulty lies here. Judging from his posture, he should have left the name of his master.

If you don't know someone well, how would you know someone's first name?

The ministers tried their best but could not find this 'Bi Menghou. ’

Wu Ganlai, the head of the household department, walked in with a stack of records. He saw everyone gathered around the table and didn't know what they were thinking.

So, I took a look.

In just a moment, he remembered who this person was.

Wu Ganlai raised his hand and wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve, and said:

"This Marquis Bi Meng, if I remember correctly, is from She County, Huizhou, a Jinshi during the Wanli Period..."

He spoke slowly and slowly: "This man has moved to Guangxi Province during the Wanli Dynasty to be the censor of the Dao Supervisor, the censor of Youqiandu, the censor of Shaanxi, and the censor of Salt Patrol in Shandong. He was the governor of Yunyang in the previous dynasty..."

Zhu Youjian's eyes lit up: "Could it be Bi Maokang?" (mao)

Wu Ganlai nodded: "Your Majesty, it is this person. He and his brother Bi Maoliang have a good reputation, and they are both elegant and responsible for the weapons department. Together they are called Er Bi."

It turned out to be Bi Maokang!

This is a great god!

Zhu Youjian was waiting for joy when he suddenly turned his head and looked at Wu Ganlai carefully.

What the hell!

This man is also a walking dictionary!

Previously, I just saw that this person was quick in arithmetic, and I thought of putting him to good use.

But I didn’t expect that this person’s head contained so many things!

"Wu Qing's head is really knowledgeable and strong in memory!" Zhu Youjian was greatly impressed.

Wu Ganlai said humbly: "Your Majesty, your elm-headed head is not half as useful as Chen Mingxia's!"

Zhu Youjian laughed. Although Chen Mingxia has a good head but a poor character, what use do I need from him!

"Wu Qing, remember this for me. When we stabilize, you will remind me to summon Brother Bi Maokang to the court."

Bi Maokang!

This is the fierce man who compiled the "Illustrated Description of Military Weapons". He is another technological master after Xu Guangqi and Zhao Shizhen.

He is as famous as Song Yingxing!

Wu Ganlai wrote it down silently.

"By the way, there are also Song Yingxing and Sun Yunqiu!"

The emperor faintly mentioned two more names...

……

Song Yingxing!

Zhu Youjian sighed, a hero who has never been an official for the rest of his life, and his brother and half of his family are loyal to the country...

He was even forced to have a shaved head with a C-shaped head, which only appeared 200 years later...

sigh!

Only sigh!

……

Time is tight and tasks are heavy.

Since taking over Xincheng County, Zhu Youjian divided the courtiers into two shifts and supervised them day and night.

Although night had enveloped the earth, Zhu Youjian had worked hard all day, but he did not go to rest.

Today is already February 19th, which is March NO.[-] in the Western calendar.

Baoding city was defeated on March 24th, which meant that he only had three days left after dawn.

Be sure to rush to Baoding City on the fourth day!

And how many invaders are there around Baoding?

A full 15 people!

They are all strong warriors!

After Li Zicheng captured Taiyuan, his troops divided into two groups and entered Hebei.

The Peasant Army is a team composed of many hilltops. Although Li Zicheng is the publicly recommended boss, there are still many groups within the Peasant Army that have independent authority to act.

In other words, the Chuangwang force is strong, and other peasant armies are not so obvious.