The brigade commanders of the First Division who had withdrawn from Fujian to Shandong one after another were all very curious about the new firearms of the Military Weapon Bureau.

It is rumored that the Military Weapons Bureau has developed a super powerful firearm. It is said that this firearm is still lethal and has a very fast fire rate.

"Really? Can someone be killed two thousand meters away?" Zhao Yong asked in disbelief, and everyone was half-believing and half-doubted. Li Ran said, "Why don't we go to the young master to ask together."

"Okay!" Wang Wenyue said excitedly: "I think it's probably true. The Academy of Sciences has developed new gunpowder."

A group of people arrived at Zhao Yan's office in a verbal way. Zhao Yan was fine. Seeing that they were so curious, they smiled and said, "Okay, then I'll take you to see it."

A group of people followed him and rode their horses to the Military Weapon Bureau.

At the weapon test site, a heavy machine gun was mounted there, with sandbags on the side, forming a simple fortification. Several weapon testers pried open the wooden box, and inside it was an old canvas bullet.

Then skillfully load the canvas bullets with a machine gun.

"Let's start!" Zhao Yan saw that he was ready, and said to the test shooter.

"Yes." The test shooter immediately pulled the trigger, and saw a row of bullets shot out in the trigger pulling.

The wooden target, which was placed five hundred meters away, was instantly hit by wood chips, which were all 20mm thick hardwood. Under the continuous attack of this heavy machine gun, the wooden target was destroyed and full of holes, but the shooting continued. Zhao Yong and others were stunned.

Fast, it's too fast!

Ordinary muskets were fired and loaded bullets once, but the machine guns were continuously loaded one after another. Under the pull of the deputy shooter, the canvas bullets continued to move towards the machine gun, and bullets shot out quickly.

"Be good, if you had such a machine gun when you landed in Zhenjiang, you wouldn't have hit Jianlu's pants." Li Ran couldn't help but remember the Zhenjiang landing battle. At that time, the troops of a battalion relied on the firepower of artillery, rockets, and fortifications to block Jianlu's attack.

If there were such a machine gun at that time, more than a dozen erected ones would be able to kill the corpses in the wild.

"Young Master, look, when will this heavy machine gun be equipped to our First Brigade?" Zhao Yong rubbed his hands and asked Zhao Yan with a wry smile.

"I'm afraid it's not so soon. You all wait next year!" Zhao Yan said: "The production of smokeless gunpowder is not safe now and it is prone to accidents. After a while, the safe smokeless gunpowder will come out."

"Young Master, if we have such powerful weapons, the spearmen are useless." Wang Wenyue said.

"It's still useful for the time being. When our third-generation rifle comes out, the spearmen will be completely removed." Zhao Yan nodded and said.

"So fast!"

Everyone couldn't help but sigh.

When Zhao Yan led them to raise an army in Zhaojiabao, he used a long spear and a long bow. In just a few years, the Shandong Army had already had extremely exquisite firearms.

At this time, the spearmen were about to withdraw from the battlefield.

"Next year to the next year, our Shandong Army will make further adjustments, and then each division will be built into combat troops mainly based on machine guns and cannons." Zhao Yan said.

"Young Master, our troops don't use so many cannons, it feels like a drag bottle." Zhao Yong said, and Wang Wenyue and the others couldn't help but nod.

"Architecture is indeed a stolen bottle before there is a strong enemy, but if the development of artillery is not paid attention to, it will be surpassed sooner or later, so we must not enter the warehouse of swords and guns. Our artillery will continue to develop." Zhao Yan understood their ideas. After all, the strong enemies around the Ming Dynasty have basically been eliminated. Now they are all dealing with some enemies with weak combat power. Artillery is indeed useless, and it feels like killing chickens and using a stolen knife. The artillery is slow in traveling, and the logistics supply relies on strong people, which is indeed a stolen bottle.

The French also believed that artillery was a drag, but they were beaten to death by the German artillery. For Zhao Yan, who was traveling through time, this basic mistake would not be made.

Zhao Yan gave them a theoretical lesson on the spot, emphasizing the role of artillery and machine guns. In the future, the infantry division will form a combat core around machine guns, and artillery is an indispensable firepower to cover infantry.

Now the Shandong Army is more skilled in infantry and artillery coordination, and artillery soldiers have developed to the extreme of current conditions in terms of mobile names. All artillery is dragged by horses, and the largest heavy artillery is dragged by 16 horses, but there are not many artillery to that exaggerated level.

When the yellow gunpowder and yellow explosives are made out, the power of the cannon will be greatly improved.

Yellow gunpowder will increase the range of the artillery, and yellow explosives will increase the explosive power of the shells. By then, the Shandong Army's shells will not be so easy to get.

The Institute of Science and Technology is speeding up the study of yellow explosives. Zhao Yan's formula has been given. After several months of research, the Institute of Science and Technology has almost made it clear.

Only one stabilizer is missing.

Without the appearance of stabilizers, these powerful gunpowder and explosives do not have practical names.

...At the end of the year, scholars of Shandong and Ming dynasties were attracted by the railway.

After the railway bureau was opened, in order to raise funds to build roads, it began to promote railways in the Ming Dynasty. For many people, there is no concept of what a railway is.

Times are changing with each passing day, and Shandong's technology is also developing continuously. The convenience of railways is incredibly convenient. According to the current speed of 30 kilometers of trains, it only takes 30 hours to get from the capital to Nanjing.

The Railway Bureau immediately revealed the railway that will be tendered and started construction next year, and announced the railway operation plan. The railway built by private fundraising is still operated by the Railway Bureau, but the profit will be returned to investors. When all investments are made back, 10% of the profits will be given to investors every year, and they can enjoy a 50-year return on investment.

Many people do not believe that railways really exist, but facts outweigh the eloquence, and the train in Zhaojiabao has already started running.

As soon as the railway bureau's intention to raise funds was announced, many excited businessmen ran to Zhaojiabao to inspect the train's real surname. When they saw the train and went up to experience it personally, no one doubted the train's practical surname.

This is a transportation change. With the existence of trains, both north and south and east and west will be more convenient in the future.

Shandong Business Daily said: "The emergence of trains will surely trigger the prosperity of business, and investment in prosperous trunk railways will definitely return generously."

"Damin Daily" reported: "The railways built next year, Shandong Zhengfu has undertaken two long railways in the north with low investment returns. The railways with high returns have all been invested by private capital. This is a foolproof investment project. It can be seen that Shandong Zhengfu does not regard the railway as a tool for making money, but focuses on the convenience brought by the railway, and aims to encourage private capital to invest in railways and improve the entire Ming Dynasty's railway network in the shortest time."

Military Intelligence reported: "The emergence of railways has brought about new changes in the mobilization and logistics of war. Once a railway is established, it can quickly dispatch troops and transportation logistics supplies, which are not only fast, but also have extremely low losses in the middle. It can be seen from the two strategic railways to be built in the north that Shandong Zhengfu has fully realized the role of railways in military affairs. Once the two strategic railways in the north are completed, our Ming Dynasty can rush troops to the west to resist the eastward advance of Tsarist Russia."

Chongzhen in the Forbidden City was miserable and miserable. Based on his recent reading of newspapers, he finally found that he was fooled by Zhao Yan.

The so-called scientific and technological research is not as chaotic as he thought and Zhao Yan admitted.

Whenever I think of this, Chongzhen felt a sense of resentment as he was teased, and at the same time he blushed at his shallowness. That day, he saw the railway reports in various newspapers, and his mood was no longer expressed.

At this time, Chongzhen was in a very dangerous situation. Although he was training at 150,000 troops, Shandong's military strength was far beyond his imagination.

Once the railway is completed, if you want to attack Shandong, you will probably die miserably, because the emergence of the railway will allow the Shandong army to quickly shrink its forces.

For Chongzhen, the situation was developing in an uncontrollable direction.

Sun Chuanting's attitude changed the fastest. He had completely become a constitutional faction. He was not happy with Chongzhen and was thinking about how to replace it.

Hong Chengchou, who returned home, did not plan to leave the mountain as soon as he returned. Before, Hong Chengchou had vowed to be loyal to him, but the old ghost Hong Chengchou always valued personal gains and losses, and saw that Chongzhen had no hope of winning, so he simply lived a pampering life in the village.

Yang Sichang and Sun Chuanting divided the Beijing camp and were also in charge of the operations of the imperial merchants.

"Your Majesty, if you want to turn the tables, it's probably only in recent years." Yang Sichang said to Chongzhen.

After seeing the report on the railway, the king and his minister felt that the time was not long. At this moment, the longer they dragged on, the more beneficial it would be for Zhao Yan.

Zhao Yan's economic strength is definitely not comparable to that of the royal family.

At the same time, Zhao Yan had money to buy things from the Ming Dynasty, but Chongzhen could not buy things from Shandong. In terms of the manpower and material resources that could be mobilized, Zhao Yan was much larger than Chongzhen.

If they cannot defeat Zhao Yan quickly by taking advantage of tricks, then they will be done.

"We need to have 300,000 troops to expand our army again." Chongzhen said gritting his teeth, and Yang Sichang nodded silently.

Although there are many soldiers and horses of 300,000, the imperial merchant group has been formed now. Yang Sichang united hundreds of merchants, as well as thousands of royal relatives and local gentry through various contacts.

In terms of financial resources, the royal family is in danger at this time. Although the royal relatives and nobles used to be stingy, they are obviously no longer the time to be stingy.

While Zhao Yan united some of the merchants, he also pushed the landlord class to Chongzhen.

No landlord would naively believe that Zhao Yan would not implement Shandong's tax policies after annexing other provinces, which would be extremely unfavorable to them.

And those royal relatives and nobles were also pushed to Chongzhen's side.

The reason why these two groups hugged Chongzhen was because Zhao Yan won the world and could not even share the remaining money for them, and it would also cause losses.

For merchants, many merchants are landlords. At the same time, some merchants think that Zhao Yan is just a traitor. Under the influence of some loyalty and righteous thoughts, they defected to Chongzhen's camp.

For some smart and able to see the situation clearly, they are willing to stand in Zhao Yan's camp.

Many businessmen standing in Chongzhen's camp also hang out in Shandong and make money in Shandong, but they have no sense of identity with Zhao Yan, which is very common.

At this time, the royal family's status was critical. Both merchants and landlords were also relatives of the royal country. Under the lobbying of Yang Sichang, they all gave Chongzhen financial support.

At the same time, Yang Sichang also set up branches in various places, constantly attracting members to enter.

From time to time, money and food were transported to the capital, and the number was increasing. Under the publicity of the Royal Daily, Chongzhen's image began to rise.

The entire Ming Dynasty's old system of profiteering began to gradually gather around Chongzhen, and the problem of money and food required for military training had been gradually solved.

Although Chongzhen lost taxes, under the operation of Yang Sichang, a new source of income emerged - donation! A kind of semi-forced donation.

In addition, those who are highly respected in various places serve as presidents, and the superiors issue donations, and then the president will go to the committee members to donate. This model is still relatively effective for the court that strengthens public opinion propaganda and brainwashing capabilities.

This is also the capital for Chongzhen to expand his army and the capital for confronting Zhao Yan. It is also the source of Chongzhen's confidence. In his sense that the people of the Ming Dynasty were loyal to him.

...Zhao Yan, who was in Zhaojiabao, soon received information from the Intelligence Department.

"What! Chongzhen is going to expand his army to 300,000? Is he crazy?" Zhao Yan said in surprise as he looked at the information sent back.

Three hundred thousand people!

What is this concept?

Using the Shandong Army's method to build an army of 300,000 people, it requires at least 20 million taels of military expenditure per year. Zhao Yan is planning to dismiss the army! Chongzhen actually expanded his army.

At present, Zhao Yan's troops have increased due to the increase in armed police forces in various provinces.

Among them, Shandong Armed Police Force has 5,000 police forces and 15,000 police forces. Liaodong and North Korea have 20,000 armed police forces, Dingdong Province Armed Police Force has 3,000. Monan Armed Police Force has 20,000, Mobei and Monan Armed Police Force has 5,000 each, Shanxi 20,000, Shaanxi 20,000, Hebei 20,000, Henan 20,000, Huguang 30,000, Sichuan 20,000, Jianghuai (Anhui, Jiangsu) 20,000, Jiangxi 20,000, Fujian 20,000, Guangzhou 20,000, Guangxi 20,000, Guizhou 20,000, and Yunnan 20,000.

Together, there are 343,000 people. Zhao Yan's troops have reached more than 810,000, most of them are conscripts. They do not need to pay military salaries. As long as food is provided, the equipment is relatively simple. The equipment of the armed police forces in each province is very well-equipped, and many of them are eliminated. They don't need much money.

In terms of military expenditure, only 40 million taels are available.

However, the military expenditure is still relatively high. At this time, the strong enemies around have basically been wiped out. It is useless to retain so much military power.

If it was originally necessary to expand, then these military forces were necessary, but now smokeless gunpowder and Lie explosives are almost developed.

Once the Mauser rifle is drawn, the machine gun, as well as cannons and shells that use yellow gunpowder and yellow explosives, the combat effectiveness of the army will be greatly improved.

After the combat effectiveness has been greatly improved, there is no need for so many people.
To be continued...