Chapter 33 Four blooming shells at the Anqing Military Field

Since that meeting, Yung Wing and Zeng Guofan had two long talks.Zeng Guofan believed that Rong Wing was an honest and reliable person, and gave him 65,000 taels of silver, asking him to go to Europe and the United States to purchase machines.Yung Wing thanked Zeng Guofan for his trust in him, returned to his hometown in Xiangshan, Guangdong, settled his mother, and set sail for a long journey.Zeng Guofan accepted Rong Hong's suggestion and built an arms factory outside Anqing City, named Anqing Nei Ordnance Institute, and appointed Yang Guodong to be in charge. .Yang Guodong also brought 30,000 taels of silver and went south to Guangdong to hire technicians and craftsmen to buy tools and raw materials.After Yang Guodong came back, he brought more than a dozen craftsmen, and the Anqing Nei Ordnance Institute was booming.Zeng Guofan would go to the Ordnance Factory every two or three days to take a look, and he had a wonderful idea in his mind: first run the factory in Anqing well, train a large number of skilled craftsmen, and then build factories in Shanghai, Wuchang, and Changsha. It was also established in Nanchang, Nanchang and other places, and gradually expanded to the whole country. This will produce a large number of guns and ammunition similar to that of foreigners. In the future, ships, clocks and watches, and all kinds of exquisite appliances will be manufactured. Now use it to deal with the long hair first, and then compete with foreigners to determine the outcome. If you don't believe in China, you can't be self-improving.

At this time, Zuo Zongtang granted Zhefu, Li Hongzhang granted Sufu, and Shen Baozhen granted Ganfu successively.It also approved the construction of three navies in Huaiyang, Ningguo and Taihu.The commander of the Huaiyang Navy is Huang Yisheng, the commander of the Ningguo Navy is Li Chaobin, and the commander of the Taihu Navy is concurrently held by Peng Yulin.Soon, Zeng Guoquan came to Anqing from Heyetang, and brought with him 6,000 newly recruited Xiangyongs. Together with the original number of Jiziying and Zhenziying, the number reached 20,000.Now, the governors of the four provinces of Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang are either friends, staff members, or disciples. They are dispatched like fingers, and they also have a strong army, a well-equipped navy, and a concerted effort between civil and military forces. it's time.Zeng Guofan convened the senior generals of the Hunan Army and all the staff who participated in the military aircraft praise painting to discuss the plan to march into Jiangning in the Anqing Superintendent's Office day and night. The general plan of using troops on three fronts and marching on five routes.

Simultaneously on three sides, that is, the Hunan army with Jizi Daying as the main body from the west, the Chu army as the main body from the south, and the Huai army as the main body from the east simultaneously to encircle Jinling.The commanders-in-chief of these three aspects are Zeng Guoquan, Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang respectively.The five-way march refers to the four armies in the west and the Yangtze River Navy.Four groups of land routes: Zeng Guoquan took Moling from Wuhu and Taiping as the south route, Bao Chao entered Jurong and Chunhua from Ningguo and Guangde as the east route, and Duolonga entered Pukou and Jiuzhouzhou from Luzhou and Quanjiao as the west route , Li Xuyi took Yanziji from Zhenjiang as the north road.These four routes focused on Zeng Guoquan's southern route, and the other three routes were aided by the guerrilla division.Bao Chao, Duolong'a, and Li Xuyi all wanted to conquer Jinling for the first time, but they couldn't compare with Zeng Guoquan in terms of momentum and strength, so that's all.

After the meeting, generals from all walks of life came to bid farewell to Zeng Guofan.Zeng Guofan smiled and said to everyone: "Tomorrow morning, I will go to the parade ground. I will invite you to watch a trick, and I will do it for the generals." Everyone didn't know what kind of trick the governor was going to play, so they were all curious, and they would gather at the parade ground early the next morning.In the parade ground outside Jinbaomen, there is a polished short bomb in the middle.This kind of cannon is called frog cannon by the soldiers. Because its gun barrel is very short, facing the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, it looks like a frog (frog) with its forelimbs propped up.A large bamboo basket next to it is filled with a basket of freshly cast cannonballs, and each cannonball is surrounded by a red silk, which is very eye-catching.On the other side of the frog cannon are piles of gunpowder.Several rows of chairs were placed around the frog cannon, and more than a hundred senior generals of the Hunan Army and the Green Battalion sat on the chairs in an orderly manner, looking at the frog cannon and Yang Guodong, Hua Hengfang, Xu Shou beside it. , Li Shanlan and others.When Zeng Guofan walked into the circle, all the generals stood up together.Zeng Guofan invited everyone to sit down with rare joy, and said loudly: "Today, I would like to invite you to take a look at the flowering cannons recently cast by our internal ordnance factory. This is made by Ruoting and Xuecun after several months of hard work. Once, three were released, and all of them blossomed. Today, everyone came to open their eyes. The flowering cannon was made by foreigners. It was not long before it was officially used on the battlefield. It has not been used on the battlefield in our country. The last time Yang Guodong went to Guangdong After buying more than a dozen, and asking foreign experts for manufacturing techniques, Ruoting and Xuecun disassembled these dozen foreign bombs one by one, studied them carefully, and finally made them. This is the first time in China. We will be able to mass-produce in the future. Now please Ruoting tell everyone first."

The tall and thin Hua Hengfang walked up to everyone, followed by a tall and strong soldier holding a cannonball in both hands.Hua Hengfang pointed at the soldiers and said in Wuxi official words: "Generals, let's see how this shell is different from the ones you usually use." All the generals turned their eyes to the shells in the hands of the soldiers.Some shouted: "This cannonball is bigger!" Some shouted: "This cannonball is long and pointed." Hua Hengfang smiled and said: "Everyone is right. This cannonball is bigger and longer than the usual cannonballs, and the head is pointed. This is only from the outside. The most important difference is the inside. It is not Really, it's empty."

"Empty ones?" "Can empty ones kill people?" The generals were surprised and began to discuss. "It is equipped with a fuze and explosives. After firing, the fuze ignites the explosives inside, causing an explosion. The whole shell explodes, as if blooming, so it is called a flowering cannon." Hua Hengfang explained to everyone in detail. "When the iron sheet explodes, people ten feet away will be beaten to death!" "No, it's really a powerful thing!" "With this kind of thing, I don't have to worry about the number of long-haired people anymore."

Like boiling a pot of water, the generals couldn't help discussing again, with smiles on their faces. "Now let the gunners show you a few." After Hua Hengfang finished speaking, the three gunners walked to the frog.A gunner picks up a bag of explosives, and a gunner picks up a cannonball, and stuffs them down through the muzzle. The explosives are stuffed first, and then the cannonball is released; , tamp tightly.After the wooden posts were drawn, both gunners stepped aside.At this time, the third gunner came to the gun fuselage.When the fire was about to be ignited, Hua Hengfang waved her hand and said to everyone: "Everyone, you can see clearly that there is a house built of bricks and stones three hundred feet away in front of you. After firing the cannon, let's see the effect."

After speaking, start the ignition.There was a flash of fire, and a violent sound came from the gun barrel. In the blink of an eye, there was a thunderclap in the distance.When everyone watched, bricks and rocks flew across the target, and thick smoke billowed.All the more than one hundred generals jumped up from their chairs with excitement, and the cheers, cheers, and applause were earth-shattering.After the gunpowder smoke faded a little, everyone rushed forward, and sure enough, a corner of a masonry and wooden house was blown away.Liu Lianjie, Peng Yuju and others found several pieces of iron by the side of the house, which were the shrapnel after the explosion.Three more were released in a row, all like the first one. There were three thunder explosions, three piles of thick smoke were ignited, and finally the house was razed to the ground!

Generals from all walks of life flocked to Yang Guodong, Hua Hengfang and others, asking how many were built.Li Chendian was domineering, he picked up the remaining five cannonballs in the bamboo basket with both hands, and ran away like flying.Zeng Guofan greeted everyone to sit down again, and said with a smile on his face: "Everyone has seen it! The cracked cannon is more than ten times stronger than the solid cannon. The Ordnance Institute has successfully tested it, so there is no need to worry about mass production. In the future, more than a dozen cannons will be produced every day. Three or four hundred of them can be produced in a month, and they will be distributed to everyone. I have asked Li Shaoquan to buy 300 frog cannons from foreigners in Shanghai, and I will distribute them to everyone after I buy them. In the future, it will be even more difficult to deal with long-haired chickens. Easy." The generals cheered again.Zeng Guofan continued: "Mr. Wei Moshen, who passed away a few years ago, was a great figure in our Hunan. He said as early as 20 years ago that he could learn from the barbarians to control the barbarians. It is a pity that this sentence has not been taken seriously by the world. Foreigners It is a fact that we are more capable than us in making guns and ships. In fact, we Chinese were the first to make artillery. Do you know that in the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a man named Chen Gui who stuffed gunpowder into bamboo, and then Ignite the gunpowder, and fire comes out from the bamboo pole. One hundred years later, in Shouzhou, which is less than 500 miles away from Anqing, there appeared a musket gun with gunpowder pellets inside. This is the originator of today's foreign guns. That At that time, foreigners didn’t know what gunpowder was.” At this time, the generals all laughed, admiring the governor’s profound knowledge.

"Later, the foreigners went ahead of us. We cannot stop the advance of the foreigners, but we can learn from the technology of the foreigners. The foreigners are no more thoughtful than us. We can do what they can do. Now the production When it becomes a blooming shell, the next step is to manufacture the cannon body, and the next step is to build the ship. First use it to deal with the long-haired, and then use it to deal with foreigners. "The generals applauded enthusiastically for a long time.After the applause subsided, Zeng Guofan smiled and said: "Several gentlemen from the Inner Ordnance Institute made flowering shells, and they made great contributions. In addition to rewarding each of them with a hundred taels of silver, I also want to give them a gift."

At this moment, Wang Jingqi came over and handed Zeng Guofan an iron cylinder about two feet long.Zeng Guofan held it up and asked, "Do you know what it is?" Everyone shook their heads. "This is a binoculars. Use it to see things. People who walk five or six miles away can clearly see whether he is a man or a woman, old or young." The crowd applauded. "After Shaoquan arrived in Shanghai, British Navy Commander Ho Bo gave him two binoculars, and he gave one to me. Today I will send it to the Inner Ordnance Institute. Later, I will test the effectiveness of the fireworks, so I don't have to run away. You can see it clearly right next to the cannon. This thing is very good. I have told Shaoquan to spare a lot of money to buy dozens of them from Uncle He, because you are in urgent need of it in the war. Now everyone can take turns to see it.” Said When it was over, Zeng Guofan handed the binoculars to the generals, and everyone looked at it, all amazed. The telescope was passed to Zeng Guofan's hands again. He was still excited, and made another unexpected comment: "I don't know how you feel after looking at it? I thought to myself after looking at it, no matter steel, glass, etc., once they are polished into tools by foreigners , it is brilliant and eye-catching, and I realized a truth from it: all things in the world can be transformed into essences if they are double-polished, and they are unique, let alone people who learn! But it can be renewed every day, and it can be multiplied by a hundred times, so why worry about it? Can’t change my temperament and become a saint? I have been interested in learning since I was young, but twenty or thirty years have passed, and my studies are still useless. Seeing this telescope, I feel ashamed.” The Hunan army around Tian Ji Pao The senior generals of the Green Battalion and the Green Battalion were all deeply moved when they heard the words of the Governor of Liangjiang, which was reminiscent of studying and advancing virtue through the telescope.Seeing that Zeng Guofan was so excited today, Li Shanlan whispered to him on the way back to the government office: "Master Zhongtang, four years ago, Wei Lie and Yali and I finished the translation of the remaining nine chapters of "Elements of Geometry". Han Luqing funded and engraved a hundred copies. I sent a letter to Luqing, saying that the edition was destroyed by the war. I am poor and unable to engrave any more. Can Master Zhongtang allocate some money..." "Okay! How much do you want to dial?" Before Li Shanlan could finish speaking, Zeng Guofan readily agreed. Li Shanlan was very grateful, and quickly said: "The last time I used two hundred taels of silver for engraving, and fifty taels of printing. This time I want to print one hundred more copies. The total cost of engraving and printing is three hundred taels of silver." "Okay, I'll give you four hundred taels of silver, and the other one hundred taels is for your embellishment." "Thank you, Mr. Zhongtang." Li Shanlan said gratefully, "I don't want to retouch the pen, but with the one hundred taels of silver, I can print four hundred copies, and give it to aspiring students, so that more people can master the unique skills of foreigners. However, I I have a request, Lord Zhongtang, please give me a preface." Zeng Guofan was moved by Li Shanlan's scholarly sentiment and said earnestly: "You continue the unfinished business of Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi, which will benefit my Chinese descendants. I should write a preface for you. Unfortunately, I know nothing about astronomy and calculus in my life. What are you writing?" After walking a few steps, he stopped again, looked at Li Shanlan and said, "Uncle Ren, if you don't mind, Jize will come to Anqing in two days. He knows a little about these things, let him go first. Draw up a draft, I'll polish it, and engrave it in my name, okay?" "It is of course very good to be able to borrow a large sum from the eldest son, not to mention that Mr. Zhongtang has to polish it himself, thank you so much!" Li Shanlan said emotionally.