[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-stealing-ming":3,"chapter-stealing-ming-stealing-ming-chapter-151":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Stealing Ming",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1220768,1614,"Chapter 151: Section Eight: The Cannon","stealing-ming-chapter-151",151,"\u003Cp>A brand-new three-pounder cannon lay right before his eyes. After inspecting the bore, Huang Shi grinned at Deng Ken: \"The boring lathe works pretty well, doesn't it? A job that would take several blacksmiths a whole month can be done with the lathe in a single day.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It cost five hundred taels of silver — how could it not work well? Besides, we've only used it this once; who knows when the next time will be.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi only smiled without speaking. Deng Ken huffed and added: \"There's also a waterwheel and a reservoir — took two whole months to build. With that much labor, we could have turned out three cannons.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The waterwheel can also be used for sawing wood...\" After the waterwheel was repaired, Huang Shi had ordered the carpenters to build a set of hydraulic sawing equipment. Planks that used to take two carpenters three days to saw could now be finished by the waterwheel in a single shichen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"But only for that one shichen,\" Rosenfeld interjected as Huang Shi rattled on, boasting about the waterwheel's power. He couldn't help reminding him: \"The stream needs two days to accumulate enough water, and that only drives the waterwheel for a little over one shichen. Zhangsheng Island has no large rivers, so the waterwheel's usefulness is truly limited.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You don't need to worry about that. I've already thought it through — we just don't have enough manpower at the moment,\" Huang Shi said with a sly grin, deliberately keeping them in suspense, then steered the topic back to the cannon before them: \"This is a field cannon, correct? I have no intention of producing a pile of fortress guns.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deng Ken nodded: \"Yes, a standard field cannon. Once the wheels are fitted, two draft horses can pull it at a gallop.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I can allocate four horses per cannon,\" Huang Shi was always generous when it came to field artillery. He patted the cannon and murmured to himself: \"It seems the time has come to form an artillery company.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deng Ken's eyes lit up at once: \"General, I am an absolutely qualified artillery officer — I have stated this repeatedly.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The armies of my Great Ming...\" Huang Shi's original intention was to have Deng Ken serve as an instructor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deng Ken impatiently cut off Huang Shi's statement: \"General, I have made up my mind. I want to enlist in the Great Ming military register.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No regrets? Once you join the Great Ming military register, you cannot casually leave it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Absolutely no regrets. I shall take the surname Deng, and my given name will be Ken.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi tilted his head, thought for a moment, then smiled and shook his head: \"Not good. A single-character given name is considered a lowly name in my Great Ming — used only by the poor and those without status. Look at my subordinates: the moment they become officers, every single one adopts a double-character given name.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then isn't the General's name also a single-character one?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes, I simply couldn't be bothered to change it,\" Huang Shi felt this name had been given to him by his parents, and in this alternate time and space it was the only thing he could keep as a memento. \"I, along with Zhang Pan of the Lüshun army and others — the moment people hear our names, they know we come from humble origins, that our parents dared not overstep and give us double-character names. So, Deng Ken, you'd better change your name. Hmm, what do you think of the name Deng Nizi?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Not good. I think the name Deng Ken is perfectly fine. That's the one.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"As you wish. Then I can apply for you to be registered as a military household of Dongjiang Town. On the military register, you will be a Semu-ji officer of the Great Ming. Finally, I must remind you of one point: according to my Great Ming household laws, the wife of a Semu officer must be a Han woman, and your sons and grandsons in the direct line will also be registered as Han.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Deng Ken shrugged: \"No problem.\" Then he grabbed Rosenfeld and dragged him over: \"He also requests to join the Great Ming military household.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Is that so? Surname Luo?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No, General, I intend to take the surname Fan — this way my descendants will remember our family's noble bloodline.\" Fan, whose ancestors for generations had been fishermen and craftsmen, Rosenfeld said. He rolled his eyes: \"I'll call myself Fan Zhongzheng. I think my noble bloodline is worthy of a double-character name.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi swept a glance at Fan Zhongzheng and probed maliciously: \"Isn't that name a bit lacking in military bearing? It sounds rather like a scholar's name.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then what name does the General suggest? Of course, I require a double-character name.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No problem.\" So he just wanted a double-character name. Huang Shi plucked one out of thin air: \"Leyou — call yourself Fan Leyou. This name comes from the Book of Songs, very meaningful. The two characters can conveniently serve as your courtesy name.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Excellent, my thanks to the General.\" Fan Leyou beamed with delight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"However, General, you had better still call me Deng Ken in the future, and I shall still address you as General.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Fine, Deng Ken.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The same for me — General, just calling me Leyou will do.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi laughed heartily: \"Of course, I shall use your courtesy name as well.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the seventh month of the fourth year of the Tianqi reign, the autumn harvest had barely begun when Huang Shi could wait no longer and mobilized the entire Firefighting Battalion. Historically, it seemed that a massive battle of unprecedented scale was about to erupt in Liaonan. Huang Shi believed that the strategic situation of the Later Jin had not changed significantly, so this great battle was unavoidable. He was eager to let his soldiers learn warfare through warfare, so as to further expand his combat forces — reaching over two thousand men before the fifth year of Tianqi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi assembled all officers of the battalion from Company Commander up, and first delivered the mission briefing: \"In the Fuzhou area, there are only a few hundred combat troops of the Jian slaves, all second-rate units. Even counting the auxiliary troops hastily mobilized, the Jian slave forces will not exceed fifteen hundred...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"For this operation, my Firefighting Battalion will deploy one cavalry company of two hundred riders, two infantry companies totaling eight hundred men, and additionally a provisional artillery company accompanying the army, with twenty officers and men.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This force disposition could be called the elite of Zhangsheng Island deployed in full strength, because Li Yunrui had sworn with absolute certainty that the Later Jin army at Nanxinkou had built no boats, and there were no fishing vessels to commandeer for hundreds of li around.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To maximize efficiency, each cannon required one commander, one gun captain, three gunners, and five ammunition handlers. Additionally, it needed carpenters, blacksmiths, grooms, and various other auxiliary troops. So Deng Ken recommended sixteen men per gun crew, and Huang Shi generously set the establishment at twenty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The naval battalion will be responsible for transporting the soldiers. Company Commander Shi, our army's safety is entrusted to you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My lord, rest assured.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shi Ce came from a line of sea bandits. Back in his native Fujian, his family had been trade merchants dealing with Japan, and in the Zhejiang seas they had been Japanese pirates pirates. Shi Ce had been arrested as a youth during a harsh imperial crackdown, and because he was still young, he was sentenced to military exile in Liaodong. Now he had transformed himself into a Company Commander of the Great Ming's official army, with the concurrent rank of Regional Military Commissioner, commanding the Zhangsheng Island naval battalion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Finally, we will also deploy six hundred auxiliary troops. For this operation, Zhangsheng Island will dispatch a total of one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five officers and men, three hundred and fifty horses, one hundred and thirty firelocks, and one three-pounder field cannon.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An assault of this scale, he believed, would be enough to make the Han army self-defense militias in the villages of Liaonan scatter at the mere rumor of their approach. Wu Mu, the two Embroidered Uniform Guard officers, and the battalion's officers were all in high spirits. Huang Shi was also brimming with confidence: \"The objective of this sortie is to burn over thirty percent of the autumn grain in the Jian slaves' Gaizhou, to rampage through the outskirts of Gaizhou for three days, to deliver a punishing blow to the Jian slave garrison left in Fuzhou, and to return safely before the main forces of the other Jian slave banners arrive in strength.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Gentlemen, do your utmost!\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1464,"2026-06-04T07:54:30.907Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","ddfcbb0632124d9f31c71739e23107b0044c9c3f32657cc9da5e3a62606d007d","stealing-ming-chapter-152","stealing-ming-chapter-150",323,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fstealing-ming-cover.jpg"]