Cao Yun is getting older.

In his fifties and under sixty, he was already covered in gray hair. In just two years, he looked like a great form, but he turned sharply. The deterioration of the domestic economic and livelihood situation is even more shocking.

The influx of cheap goods in the Ming Dynasty severely hit the original self-sufficient small peasant economy of Qi. Countless Qi families went bankrupt as a result. A large number of self-cultivated farmers abandoned their land and embarked on the road to escape famine. They would rather be refugees than be locked on the land and eventually die in poverty. The heavy taxes and corvee service were no longer able to bear it.

In order to solve the problem of refugees, Qi State had to establish refugee camps and control them. Some strong refugees were selected to join the army and formed civilian camps, using their own labor to exchange for the minimum resources to survive.

In many places, people have begun to wither. Within a few miles, there are no sounds of chickens crowing and dogs barking. This is an extremely serious matter for the densely populated Qi State.

What made the Qi court even more unbearable was that their monetary system had completely gone bankrupt. Under the quiet layout of the Ming Dynasty and the people who were obsessed with interests in the country were fueled by their own interests, the Ming people perfectly copied the financial attacks on Chu in Qi, but this time, they did it more cleverly and hiddenly. If the Chu State was robbing the Chu State naked and openly, this time, they quietly dug up the corners of the wall for several years, and only when the entire wall was shaking, they kicked it hard.

The person who kicked this kick was not the Ming people, but the Qi people themselves. When Qi ordered the severance of all business relations between the Ming people and carried out a comprehensive blockade, it was equivalent to the kick that was kicked hard.

In less than a month, the monetary system of the Qi court disappeared and collapsed. The credit for money-making lost the support of the Ming people and instantly became worthless. It was not until this time that the Qi State understood, but it was too late.

Many people in Qi State have returned to the era of using things to deal with things. Even the imperial court no longer accepts the use of copper coins to collect taxes, either physical objects or gold and silver.

The Ming Taiping Bank not only made a lot of money on Qi, but also destroyed Qi's credit system from its roots. It was basically impossible to rebuild credit in a short period of time. Moreover, this matter was not finished and was still fermenting. The bankruptcy of Qi's monetary system caused the Ming Dynasty's banknotes to rise in Qi. Many Qi people were willing to obtain Ming Dynasty banknotes at all costs in order to protect their assets. The Ming Taiping Bank was trying hard to make their money printing factory add enough money to print money, and then sent it to Qi through secret channels. The thin piece of paper was exchanged for real assets with real money and silver. As for this, the masters in Qi who were in charge of money once again realized it and still knew nothing.

At this time, Cao Yun had completely shifted his attention to the military. He was a big expert in military affairs, and it was obvious that he could not fully control how to govern a country. Now he had basically left all his government affairs to the chief minister Tian Fen. After years of neglect, Tian Fen once again became a figure above ten thousand people in Qi State. However, at this time, Tian Fen took over a mess that was so bad that it could not be more ruined.

Cao Yun needed an experienced old guy like Tian Fen to stabilize his backyard and provide solid guarantees for his military operations. From now on, Qi has entered a state of wartime control, and everything must be given priority. Cao Yun firmly believes that any difficulties only require him to win a huge victory in the military and severely damage the Ming Dynasty, and then everything will be fine.

Along the experimental site, accompanied by loud noises, thick smoke rose. When the smoke disappeared, Cao Yun in the distance raised the telescope in his hand and carefully examined the scene on the experimental site.

Since learning about the gunpowder weapons of the Ming Dynasty, Qi State has tried every means to get a lot of gunpowder through various channels and invested a lot of manpower and material resources for research.

In the Ming Dynasty, gunpowder has now gradually become popular in the civil industry. Many industries such as mining and road construction have begun to use gunpowder. Once the gunpowder that was only controlled in the military entered the civil industry, the Qi people would have many opportunities to succeed. They did live up to their expectations and sneaked back a lot.

Of course, there is still a considerable difference between civilian gunpowder and military gunpowder, but this is already a treasure for the people of Qi. At least in their opinion, the gunpowder used on the mines of Ming Kingdom can break up mountains and crack stones, and its power is already great enough.

Slowly putting down the telescope, Cao Yun looked at Yang Gui, the chief supervisor of the craftsman, beside him, "It's still much worse than the gunpowder of the Ming people!"

Yang Gui's face was full of difficulties: "Your Majesty, you are much stronger than last time. At least, you can already engage in actual combat, and you are no longer just a testament."

After a moment of silence, Cao Yun nodded, "Stay working hard, send the rewards you should give immediately. Yang Gui, keep a close eye on these rewards. If anyone dares to be greedy, I will peel these people's skin."

Yang Gui nodded repeatedly: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will stare at this matter in person. I know the importance of this, so I will definitely not let such a thing happen."

"Craftsmen need stimulation, encouragement, and need to let them fight for their bright future. Ming people did this much earlier than us, so we still acted too late!" Cao Yun sighed and stared at the telescope in his hand: "We can't make this thing ourselves?"

Yang Gui was sad. In the past, the craftsman camp in the Great Qi State was a department where anyone could take advantage of it. If that noble man wanted to repair a house, he might have to ask people to do it from the craftsman camp. That is, after Cao Yun took office, the status of the craftsman camp soared to the sky. Now, the craftsman camp has built construction land in the Tongdu city such as Chang'an and Luoyang, and there are millions of craftsmen under his jurisdiction. It is of high power. But the price of soaring to the sky is that the responsibility is extremely heavy. As the chief supervisor of the craftsman camp, Yang Gui felt that he was almost unable to bear it.

The Ming people had no choice but to lose their poverty. These things applied to the military put great pressure on Qi, and in the end, these pressures basically turned to the craftsman's camp. His tender shoulders were almost crushed.

"Your Majesty, the most important thing in making this telescope is to make suitable glass sheets. The glass we make now is very turbid. Not to mention grinding such lenses, it is not possible for civil use. However, the craftsmen have been working hard to study, hoping to make a breakthrough soon."

Cao Yun sighed regretfully. Many times, you know that this thing is easy to use, but you can't create it yourself. When something that seems simple, you will find that when you really implement it in actual use, you will find that a small deficit in any link will lead to the failure of the whole thing.

The Ming people were able to make huge glass, so they used these things as luxury goods, dumping them in large quantities like Qi State, earning countless gold and silver. However, they were in a dime above the export of these special glasses, which made the Qi State people only obtain sporadic things through some private channels, which was far from meeting the needs.

The purpose of telescopes in military affairs is not to be doubted. The Ming people have been assigned to the level of sentry chief, but only people above the level of general can have such a person.

Similar to this is artillery.

Qi State now has gunpowder, but the development of artillery has stagnated. The cast artillery has been full of loopholes and is often blown into pieces during the test artillery test. The test artillery tester has become a dead position, and almost every day people die because of the explosion of the cannon.

Ning Zefeng had sent back a batch of artillery made by Ming people. After researching the craftsmen, the masters of the craftsman camp gave Cao Yun a shocking answer. The Ming people dug out the cannon bore from a whole iron pillar, which was completely different from the Qi people's methods. The Qi people could not do this anyway. They could not even imagine how the Ming people took out a smooth cannon bore from the solid iron blocks.

In order not to explode the chamber, we could only fill less gunpowder. The gunpowder of Qi itself is much worse than that of Ming Dynasty and cannot be filled in full, so the range is very pitiful.

Another solution to this problem is to use copper to cast cannons, but for Qi State, copper is also an expensive strategic material. After struggling to cast a batch, the expensive cost forced them to stop.

The substantial backwardness of basic science makes it difficult for Qi to move forward in frontier science.

"Yang Gui, work harder. After solving these problems, you are a hero of the Great Qi. Even if you are granted the title of vassal, I will never hesitate. Now you must concentrate all your strength and conquer gunpowder technology, at least meet the standards used by the Ming people, and then find a way to cast better artillery. Without these things, our Qi State will shed more blood on the battlefield." Cao Yun stood up, left this sentence, and turned around.

Looking at Cao Yun's back, Yang Gui was not moved by this generous promise at all. Compared with those court ministers who knew nothing, although he was also an old nobleman in Qi State, he, who had been dealing with masters all year round, understood more or less some of the things above science. Every step forward, the price he had to pay, sometimes, if a thin layer of window paper could not be penetrated, nothing could be done.
Chapter completed!