Chapter 477: Shifting the Topic

The Emperor's previous rewards to the Loyal and Brave Count seemed generous, but that dazzling series of titles were all nominal positions. Up until the tea gathering in the Imperial Garden, Cao Zong's substantive post was still Vice Commander of Zhangzhou and Chaozhou.

This situation arose not because the Emperor was suppressing him, but because the Emperor needed detailed discussions and comprehensive consideration before deciding on Cao Zong's next specific assignment.

Today's tea gathering was specifically arranged by the Emperor to resolve this matter. However, from the moment the Emperor spoke those words, the interests of both sides began to diverge.

For Chongzhen, transferring Cao Zong from the south to the Liaodong theater to take charge of resisting the Tartars was the move that best served the Emperor's interests.

Since the old slave rose in revolt, the Great Ming had never had a fine general like the Loyal and Brave Count. The Loyal and Brave Count was now to the Emperor what Qi Jiguang had been to the Jiajing Emperor. If Chongzhen did not use this man to exterminate the Tartars, then who should he use? The cannibal?

This was the fundamental reason Chongzhen had previously defended Cao Zong to the death in court.

To be honest, as long as Cao Zong did not raise the banner of rebellion right now, even if he used iron oxen to plow the fields, even if he massacred the gentry in Jiangnan, even if he rounded up refugees in droves to send to Yizhou, even if he ran to the Rear Palace and touched Widow Zhang's thigh, Chongzhen would endure it all — as long as my beloved minister helps me destroy the Tartars first, I'll endure even a little green on my head!

Of course, as for after the Tartars are destroyed... perhaps familiarize yourself with Zhang Juzheng's fate? He was nearly dug up and his corpse flogged by a certain someone.

Chongzhen could distinguish priorities clearly at the moment: any internal conflict paled in severity compared to the Tartars, who could at any time pull him from the dragon throne and chop off his head.

Therefore, he absolutely had to hoodwink Cao Zong into going to Liaodong to exterminate the Tartars.

However, this matter was not so simple.

Before Qi Jiguang made his name, he was a hereditary Dengzhou Guard Assistant Regional Commander... the man came from a family of public servants, a solid member of the establishment.

Precisely because of this, the Jiajing Emperor could assign Qi Jiguang at will. When fighting the Wokou, he sent this man to the coast; when fighting the Tatars, he sent him to Santun Camp as Ji Garrison Garrison Commander; and once Zhang Juzheng died and Qi Jiguang's backing collapsed, the Emperor easily kicked him off to Guangzhou.

In this process, Qi Jiguang, as a brick within the establishment, had no capacity to resist on his own — he could only obey orders.

Cao Zong, however, was different.

Cao Zong was a sea bandit recruited through amnesty; he had brothers under him, Yizhou hanging behind him, men, money, and provisions, and was financially self-sufficient. To put it plainly, he was a military strongman — and a far more overt one than the Guanning Army.

Although this military strongman had shown a gratifying willingness to integrate into the establishment, the Emperor could not order Cao Zong around the way he had Qi Jiguang — what does "military strongman" mean? It means the kind of person who can raise the banner of rebellion at any moment if negotiations fall through.

So today, the Emperor could only discuss this matter with Cao Zong in a consultative tone.

In the end, the Emperor was still mercilessly refused.

Once matters reached this stage, the interests of the Transmigrators and the Emperor were no longer aligned.

For the Transmigrators, what needed to be done in the north right now was to open branch bases, absorb refugees, build a Guide Party network for commodity sales, stockpile supplies, train troops, and so on — a whole series of preparatory tasks.

As for pacifying and annihilating the Tartar captives — sorry, the time was not yet right.

The configuration that best served their interests at present was naturally for the Later Jin Group and the Guanning Clique to keep each other in check in the wilds of Liaodong. The Transmigrators, for their part, only needed to ensure the Tartars did not break into the Great Ming's heartland to plunder as they had historically.

In this way, the populace of North China could be preserved, social order could be barely maintained, the annual refugee waves would not peak too high, and the Transmigrators' refugee transport system could keep pace with development.

The scenario above was precisely what the Transmigrators most desired.

After persisting like this for a few more years, when the day finally came that the Chongzhen Emperor so yearned for — the Loyal and Brave Count personally leading a great army to sweep away the Tartar captives... sorry, at that point, after a certain someone had swept the Tartar captives clean, he would very likely sweep the Guanning Army clean along the way, then march south and breach the Capital... well, Your Majesty, I am truly sorry to have disappointed your expectations. The truth is, your minister is an actor...

Thus, from this tea gathering onward, the interests of the Emperor and Cao Zong were no longer aligned.

And upon hearing Cao Zong attribute his reason for returning south to something like insufficient bullets, Chongzhen was somewhat dumbfounded.

It must be known that before today's meeting, Chongzhen had made considerable preparations. But this answer from Cao Zong did not fall within the repertoire of responses the Emperor had planned for in advance. So the Emperor could only ask the two Cabinet Ministers with some astonishment: "Is there really such a thing?"

The two Cabinet Ministers were also somewhat baffled at this moment. Of course, Zhou Yanru was genuinely baffled, while Actor Wen, who had colluded with Cao Zong beforehand, was feigning bafflement.

"Heh heh, Your Majesty, do not be anxious; allow your minister to explain slowly."

Cao Zong began to recount this campaign to the Emperor in detail.

Because the information the Emperor had previously received in memorials was very vague, containing only phrases like "brave and skilled in battle" and "sharp weapons," and no one had told the Emperor the details of the campaign or the super firepower of a certain rifle, once Cao Zong finished his explanation, Chongzhen had a sudden realization: "So, this 'Second Battalion Gun' deserves the highest merit?"

"Indeed!" Cao Zong said with a beaming smile. "Your Majesty, this gun can pierce the Tartars' heavy armor from three hundred paces away. In this engagement, your minister did not have a single Crouching Tiger Cannon. How was a great victory achieved? Entirely by relying on this gun!"

"We wish to inspect the gun!" Chongzhen was now brimming with excitement — if the situation was truly so, then he could simply "import" a batch of firearms to equip troops he trusted. Why grovel and coax a certain Cao into pacifying the Tartars?

"Your minister obeys the decree!" Cao Zong hurriedly accepted the order. He then asked for brush and ink on the spot, handwrote a note, and gave it to a eunuch to run to the Loyal and Brave Count Residence and bring people over. At the same time, Chongzhen ordered men to the Imperial Horse Agency, instructing them to bring some of the firearms issued to the Capital Garrison.

The Chongzhen Emperor of the late Ming was no longer the caged canary raised deep within the palace that his predecessors had been. Even if he were, after experiencing this Jisi Incident, even the most ignorant emperor would understand the importance of military preparedness.

It must be known that Chongzhen had once sat atop the city wall, personally experiencing round after round of Red Barbarian Cannon fire and the battle beneath the walls. He was therefore by no means unfamiliar with the Ming Army's firearms. Moreover, nonsense like "one cannon blast reduces everything for several dozen li to pulp" could no longer fool the Emperor. He was very clear on the power of the Ming Army's standard-issue firearms.

Before long, the people arrived.

From the Loyal and Brave Count Residence came a residence guard in Ming attire and a gun. From the Imperial Horse Agency came several eunuchs and soldiers, along with some weapons and armor.

The Loyal and Brave Count was already very familiar with this kind of scene, so after he stood up and directed things with a few gestures, the firing range was set up.

Starting from in front of the pavilion, across the fish pond, roughly every fifty meters, there was a table with standard Ming Army Zhajia Armor Armor Armor and Mountain-Pattern Armor fixed to it.

Then the shooting demonstration began.

The outcome was self-evident.

The several Imperial Horse Agency soldiers standing upwind, with their Bird Blunderbusses, Three-Eye Blunderbusses, and other weapons, not only loaded slowly, but the bullets fired from them could at most "touch" the iron armor at one hundred meters. Not only could they not penetrate the target, but their accuracy was also terrifyingly low — these crude smoothbore guns could only speak of accuracy when firing volleys.

Next was the performance by the Loyal and Brave Count's personal guard.

The man was unhurried and composed, beginning to strike the target three hundred meters away at a steady rate of fire of four shots per minute. As one heart-stirring gunshot after another rang out, after twenty consecutive shots, the soldier only stopped when the gun smoke obscured his vision.

Two eunuchs came running over panting, carrying the target. They knelt before Chongzhen and raised the armor: "Your Majesty, we have counted: sixteen hits on target!"

Seeing the dense, light-piercing holes on that suit of fine armor, the young Emperor stood up and extended slightly trembling fingers, incessantly rubbing the burrs at the edges of the holes.

After a long while, Chongzhen sighed: "I never imagined such a divine weapon existed in this world. It seems our ancestors bless us and will not let our Great Ming perish!"

Zhang Dongdong, hearing this, secretly curled his lip: The credit goes to the ancestors again? Can the ancestors really bless you, old man?

Seeing that the Emperor's attention had finally been diverted to the firearm, Cao Zong, aside from his internal grumbling, also breathed a slight sigh of relief: without a reasonable explanation, it would be very difficult for him to make Chongzhen accept his return to Yizhou, and this would affect the honeymoon relationship between sovereign and minister.

Next, Cao Zong held nothing back. He not only personally disassembled and explained the rifle's structure to everyone present, but then, before the Emperor's eyes, he opened a paper cartridge and took out the key component inside: the percussion cap.

According to Cao Zong, this unremarkable-looking copper piece called a percussion cap was the very reason he had to return to Yizhou.

Because an item made by secret methods like the percussion cap could not be produced in Yizhou and could only be purchased from sea merchants of the nation of Alaska in Haedong.

Percussion caps were not only expensive but also scarce in output. Because the nation of Alaska was far away, even fewer reached the Great Ming. For this northern expedition to rescue the King, the reason he had been able to exchange for four thousand heads was that Cao Zong had actually used up his entire stock of percussion caps accumulated over several years.

Therefore, Cao Zong absolutely had to make this trip back — he had to personally lead a fleet to the trading cities of the Indian Ocean to purchase percussion caps.

After hearing Cao Zong's account, the Emperor remained noncommittal. However, Senior Grand Secretary Zhou, standing to the side, fired off several questions in succession: Was the gun useless without the percussion cap? Could the Great Ming copy it? Also, how much did this percussion cap and gun actually cost?

Cao Zong first quoted the prices: the purchase price of a percussion cap in the Indian Ocean was two taels of silver each; shipped to Yizhou, three taels of silver; shipped to Beijing, it had to be calculated as at least four taels of silver each.

Here, the Loyal and Brave Count offered a friendly tip: to train a qualified marksman, one could not do so without firing a thousand rounds of ammunition.

As for the guns, since the craftsmen on the Yi Continent could produce them themselves, the price was set at: 200 taels of silver per gun.

Finally, regarding the matter of imitation, Regional Commander Cao generously agreed: he could leave behind 10 guns and 100 percussion caps for His Majesty to take and attempt to copy. If the skilled craftsmen of the Imperial Palace could successfully reproduce them, so much the better; he would no longer need to risk the dangers of the Indian Ocean in the future.

Hearing this, Chongzhen slowly nodded his head.

Seeing the Emperor nod, Senior Grand Secretary Zhou, standing to the side, pulled a long face and said angrily: "A single Bird Blunderbuss of the Great Ming costs no more than 10 taels of silver, and the powder and shot are even cheaper. He has never heard of fire lances and ammunition this expensive. Are you, you Servant, deliberately inflating the price out of black-hearted greed?"

Regional Commander Cao shook his head with a bitter smile upon hearing this and said: "The Great Ming's Bird Blunderbuss is cheap, but the Great Ming's officers and soldiers are also chased around like dogs by the Tartars. His Old Cao's Bird Blunderbuss is expensive, but it uses an Alaskan gun barrel, which is why it could kill 4000 Tartars."

Regional Commander Cao finally asked: "Cheap goods are no good, and good goods are not cheap. Sir Zhou, surely you are not incapable of understanding such a simple principle?"

Zhou Yanru: "......"