Chapter Thirty-One: The Calamity

  In mid-October, Pang Gang led the military households to start their first autumn harvest in Wang Haibao. In this year, they cultivated 3,200 mu of wasteland, and since it was the first time they cultivated it, the yield was not very high. This harvest yielded about 3,100 dan of wheat, which solved the most pressing food problem in Wang Haibao. This result also made Pang Gang, who had been oppressed by the food problem for days, finally breathe a sigh of relief. It turned out that the saying "people regard food as heaven" was not just an empty phrase.

  After the autumn harvest, the weather suddenly turned cold, and Pang Gang finally learned what historians of later generations said about the Little Ice Age in the late Ming Dynasty. Pang Gang was a typical southerner, and the sudden cold weather made him very uncomfortable. He hated to be frozen by this ghostly weather with a runny nose, and he wanted to stay at home all day to warm himself up, but deep down he knew that now was not the time for enjoyment. Therefore, he almost forced himself to train with the troops every day.

  In Pang's room, the fire in the brazier was burning vigorously, with dark blue flames rising from the bright red charcoal, warming up the whole room like spring.

  Pang Gang sat in a chair not far from the fire pit, still holding a seven-foot-long (two-meter) and about 7-8 jin-heavy fire lance gun, carefully examining it. This object consists of a barrel, receiver, curved stock, dragon head, trigger, fire door, track, front mouth, rear door, and aiming devices called sight door and sight star. Because the gun's mechanism resembles a bird's beak, Ming Dynasty people call it a "bird gun". There are many types of bird guns, and the one in Pang Gang's hand is one of the most famous ones, which is called the "Lu Mi Gun".

  The prototype of the Ruiming Chong was a type of fire lance presented to the Ming dynasty by the Ottoman Empire, which was later improved upon by the Ming inventor Zhao Shizhen into an improved version called the bird-trunk gun. It is also recognized by historians and military enthusiasts as one of the best types of fire lances.

  The range of the Ru Ming Chong can reach an astonishing 150 steps (about 200 meters), and its weight is slightly heavier than that of a general fire lance, mainly due to its all-metal structure. Its features include double-layered barrels, small caliber, extremely high initial velocity of bullets, which has basically approached that of modern rifles.

  "The Bird Gun: Only the Lu Mi Gun is the farthest and most poisonous."

  This is also the most advanced thermal weapon that Pong Gang can currently cash out from "Modern Firearms Encyclopedia", of course, in the thermal weapon chapter of the book, there are more advanced flintlock guns, muzzle-loading rifles and other thermal weapons, but the conditions required are enough to make Pong Gang scratch his head, cashing out these things requires tungsten ore in addition to iron ore and wood.

  This made Pang Gang, who was eager to equip his troops with flintlocks on a large scale, stunned. Although he knew that China in the future would be the country with the largest reserves of tungsten in the world, Pang Gang vaguely remembered that it seemed that the time when tungsten ore was first discovered in China was somewhere in the 20th century. What tungsten ore looked like now no one knew, and Pang Gang's understanding of minerals was almost zero. Therefore, the only firearm he could currently produce was the matchlock gun.

  However, after Pang Tong tried shooting the Lu Mi Chong, he was also shocked by its power. The maximum range of this Lu Mi Chong is 150 steps, and it can penetrate the scale armor and cotton armor of the Ming army at a distance of 100 steps, which is extremely fierce.

  This also made Pang Gang extremely puzzled, why the Ming army had such a powerful weapon in the face of Li Zicheng's bandits and Qing soldiers, but still suffered defeat after defeat. Later, when he asked a craftsman who made weapons for advice, he finally understood that by the late Ming dynasty, the unreasonable system of treating craftsmen as inferior had completely exposed its drawbacks. The bird guns manufactured by the Ming army's arsenal were mostly unqualified and defective products, often causing barrel explosions during use, so the Ming army was more willing to believe in their own knives and guns, and few troops were willing to use bird guns. Moreover, the production cost of bird guns was also quite high, and this Lu Mi gun in Pang Gang's hand was even more so. Although this Lu Mi gun had good safety performance, small caliber, good air tightness, and strong armor-piercing ability, there were only a few craftsmen in the entire Ming dynasty who could make it, and even if they could make it, they could only make one per month at most. Therefore, it was impossible to popularize Lu Mi guns in the current Ming dynasty.

  Lao Jiang's words made Pang Gang feel quite delighted, wasn't that saying that the Lu Mi Chong in his hand was now the most advanced firearm in the entire Ming Dynasty?

  However, so far, only sixty have been exchanged, and the constraint is the ore problem. This problem has also been troubling Pong Gang, although in the book it says that the exchange of things uses iron ore, but when Pong Gang really exchanges them, he finds that what this book says is actually pig iron, one unit of iron ore is equal to one catty of pig iron, which makes Pong Gang, who was excitedly holding a pile of ore to prepare for the exchange, so angry that he almost vomited blood.

  The consequence of this discovery was that Pang Gang almost emptied his last copper plate to equip the troops with Lu Mi guns. Fortunately, the lead bullets and gunpowder needed for the Lu Mi guns could be made by a few craftsmen in Wanghai Fortress, otherwise, Pang Gang, who had no power to cash out the ammunition, could only let the soldiers use the Lu Mi guns as firewood.

  While carefully examining the revolver, the guard at the door came in to report, "Reporting to Your Excellency, Wang Zongqi and Huang Zongqi are waiting for an audience in the main hall!"

  "Oh, they're no longer training outside to get familiar with the new firearms, what are they doing here?" Pang Gang stood up with some confusion and quickly walked towards the outer hall.

  Pang Gang's hundred-house hall was built with rough wood and was very simple. In the winter, cold winds would occasionally blow in through the gaps, but under the current circumstances, it was natural not to mind so much.

  Now Da Zhuang, Wang Zhi, Li Xian, Li Yuan, Hua Yan and others are anxiously waiting in the hall.

  As soon as Pang entered the hall, Da Zhuang, this impulsive man, loudly shouted: "Something bad has happened, Qian Ri Fortress was slaughtered by a group of bandits a few days ago!"

  "What! Toubao!"

  "Yes, sir, the entire Senrikyo Castle's old and weak women and children were all killed, it was truly pitiful."

  Pang Gang was shocked and lost color, that Qian Ri Fortress is a fortress under the Ling Shan Wei, but it's an almost abandoned fortress. The walls of the castle are very low and short, and there are few military households living inside, with less than thirty households, led by a general flag. Who would have thought that just entering winter, they suffered a bandit massacre!

  After the late Ming dynasty entered the Little Ice Age, it was indeed a disaster, and bandits were as numerous as hairs on an ox. In the territory of Qingzhou Prefecture, there were several gangs of bandits lurking about. However, as the saying goes, "a rabbit does not eat the grass near its nest," and "an eagle does not strike at food under its feet." Although the local bandits in Qingzhou also frequently committed crimes such as murder, kidnapping, and robbery, they still had some bottom line considerations. Something like massacring an entire village or fortress was truly shocking to hear.

  Pang Gang suppressed the shock in his heart and said in a low voice: "What's going on after all, Da Zhuang, tell me in detail!"

  "Roger!"

  Dazhuang responded with a sound and then said in detail, it turned out that near the Qianri Fortress, there was a place called Quanya Mountain, which was occupied by a group of bandits a few years ago. This group of bandits mainly consisted of local ruffians and some old bandits who had been hiding for many years, as well as some defeated or escaped soldiers who joined them. The leader of the bandits was a man named Zhou Youcai, who was said to be from a military family.

  Zhou Youcai led this group of bandits to frequently commit evil deeds, year after year burning, killing and looting in various places. When they arrived at villages, they would sweep away all valuables like locusts. As for kidnapping and extortion, plundering women, these were as common as meals. These people were extremely cruel and evil. A few days ago, the bandit leader Wang Damazi from Wangjiatun was killed by Pang Gang, and the thieves scattered in all directions. Among them, more than 200 people fled to Gouyashan to join Zhou Youcai.

  After Zhou Youcai absorbed this band of thieves, he became more and more lawless, his courage grew bigger and bigger, and the things he did became more and more extreme. Now he has even committed the evil deed of massacring Qian Ri Fort.

  The reason was that Zhou Youcai had taken a fancy to a beautiful woman a few days ago, and when he inquired about her, she turned out to be the daughter of a general from Qian Ri Bao. Zhou Youcai ordered his men to inform the general to dress up the girl and send her to the mountain stronghold as his mistress. The general refused, and in a fit of rage, Zhou Youcai led more than 500 bandits down the mountain that night and slaughtered the entire Qian Ri Bao, committing an atrocity that shocked heaven and earth.

  After listening to Da Zhuang's explanation, Pang Gang was so angry that he could hardly speak. He really didn't expect the local bandits to be so rampant and dare to do such a thing that outraged public decency!

  Even Huayan on the side, with red eyes and trembling lips, said: "For some wealth and women, you actually want to slaughter everyone in the castle, it's simply beastly!"

  "Bang!" A loud crash, it turned out that Pang Gang had punched the table.

  At this time, Pang Gang's eyes were wide with anger and he shouted loudly: "We must completely eliminate these inhumane beasts!"

  Thank you, ji☉＾Lian Feng Chen classmate for your reward, and congratulations to you for becoming the first executive of this book. At the same time, thank you also to Yan Jin classmate for your reward and your Wu Zhang evaluation vote. With your support, Ah Ding's heart is always warm! Thank you all!