Li Xingzhong did not hesitate at all: "I am willing!"
"Your Majesty, the bandits have no more than 10,000 soldiers in Hejian Prefecture. I am willing to lead the troops to recapture them! Guard the southwest gate of the capital!"
"No." Chongzhen shook his head and refused.
"Your Majesty..." Li Xingzhong wanted to say something, but Chongzhen rejected him again, "Remember, you can't get fat in one bite!"
"I will inform the cabinet to let you serve as the general of Baoding and station you in Liangxiang. There are only two months left before the bandits enter the pass again. You have fought outside the pass and know the tactics of the Jiannu. You also know how to fight them!"
"While you are stationed in Liangxiang, you must train your troops specifically against the Jiannu's tactics. The imperial court will give priority to supplying money, food, weapons, war horses and armor."
"Then you will be my special soldier! Do you understand?"
"Your Majesty, I will obey your command!" Li Xingzhong stood up and left reluctantly.
With Li Xingzhong's departure, the Qianqing Palace returned to peace again.
Chongzhen looked at the empty hall and felt a little relieved.
The deployment at the military level has been completed.
Whether in the South or the North, the war was divided into three stages.
The first stage is defense, the second stage is strategic stalemate, and the third stage is counterattack.
We are in the first stage now, so there is no rush.
The defense lines near the capital have also been rearranged.
In the east, there is Wu Sangui in Shanhaiguan, in Jizhou, there are Wang Yongji and Gao Di, in the southwest, there is Li Xingzhong in Liangxiang, in the north, there is Tang Tong in Juyongguan, and there are three camps and Liu Wenyao in the capital.
The total number of troops reached 100,000!
These are real combat soldiers who can fight head-on even if Li Zicheng returns.
Without the threat of Li Zicheng, Chongzhen's attention automatically shifted to the Jiannu.
He had two months to prepare, and if he wanted to defeat the bandits, the key would be to rely on firearms.
"Wang Chengen, notify the Ministry of Works that I want to move to the Wuzi Depot."
......
The imperial carriage left the imperial city, with the Jinyi Guards in front, the Yongwei Battalion surrounding it on both sides, and the Dongchang guards guarding the back.
There were clearly not enough guards around Chongzhen.
Sixty percent of the 2,000-strong Yongwei Battalion was lost, leaving only a thousand Jinyiwei in the capital. The East Depot was not much better, with only half of its 1,000 guards left.
The imperial procession marched towards Wuziku in a mighty manner.
The entire capital city seemed very solemn.
Chongzhen sat on the imperial carriage, opened the cotton curtain, and all he saw was white.
It wasn't snowing outside, it was white because the doors along the street were hung with white cloth.
The paper money used for sacrifices danced in the air, and the ashes of the burnt paper floated up and fell into the palm of the hand, then drifted away with the wind before being touched.
If you listen carefully, you can hear the sound of crying all over the city.
This battle hurt the capital, but it also brought out the bravery of the people of the capital.
Although the people along the way had sad faces, they knelt down and shouted "Long live the emperor" when they saw the imperial carriage.
In their eyes, it was the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty who turned the tide and ensured that the capital would not be destroyed!
Chongzhen closed the door curtain with no emotion and rested.
He needs to calm down and focus on the future.
The team soon arrived at the Wuzi Treasury, and the ministers lined up outside the door to greet them.
“No need for formalities!” Chongzhen stepped down from the imperial carriage and walked straight inside.
Fan Jingwen was handling official business in the cabinet at the time, so the task of accompanying the king fell on Chen Biqian, the left vice minister of the Ministry of Works, and Zhou Kangeng, the right vice minister.
The two men were wearing the same clean but old court robes. The former had an anxious look on his face and looked towards the door from time to time, expecting Fan Jingwen to come back and take charge.
The latter had dark circles under his eyes, as if he had not slept for a long time, and he walked lightly, and if you didn't look carefully, you would think he was a ghost.
They stood behind Chongzhen, one on each side. "Your Majesty, be careful on the steps."
Chongzhen kept looking back as he walked, fearing that these two men would send him away.
After a brief ordeal, Chongzhen finally sat on a chair in the lobby of the Wuzi Library. He looked around and finally landed on Jiao Xu and Johann Adam Schall von Bell.
Sun Yuanhua died, Bi Maokang returned home due to illness, and the Ming Dynasty could only rely on these two for firearms.
"I wonder what instructions Your Majesty has for the Ministry of Works?" Seeing that Chongzhen didn't speak, Chen Biqian stood up.
Chongzhen did not speak immediately. After a moment's silence, he asked, "Does your Ministry of Works have the armor of the Jiannu heavy infantry?"
"Yes, I will arrange for someone to bring it to you right away."
Chen Biqian ordered someone to take out the armor from the storeroom at the back and handed it to Chongzhen, saying, "This is the armor we captured in Liaoxi in the eleventh year of our dynasty. It was sent to the Ministry of Works for research."
Chongzhen looked at the armor in front of him with a frown.
This armor consists of two sets of armor.
One set of cotton armor and one set of iron armor.
The cotton armor is the cotton armor commonly used by the Ming army, inlaid with many copper nails.
The other set is heavy armor, which is very similar to the infantry armor of the Song Dynasty.
The armor was covered with traces of bullets and arrows, and it was obvious that the Ministry of Industry had used it for a lot of research.
This set of heavy armor is very well made. Although so much time has passed, there are very few rusty places. Some places even reflect blue light, which shows that it has been treated with rust prevention.
He gently bent the upper nail plate, and the wrinkles between his brows deepened.
It's steel!
The manufacturing cost of steel was very high in that era. Iron with a high carbon content is pig iron, iron with a low carbon content is wrought iron, and only iron with a carbon content of 0.02-2.11% can be called steel.
The heavy armor covers a very large area, with a helmet on the head, a breastplate on the upper body, a skirt armor on the lower body, baffles on the legs, and protection for the neck, armpits, and face.
If he put on this armor and took up a weapon, not to mention Ming Jun, even he, a time traveler, would feel his scalp tingling when he saw it.
Chongzhen placed the heavy armor on the table, looked up and asked, "You have been studying for six years, what are the results?"
Chen Biqian replied respectfully: "Your Majesty, there are only three types of firearms that can penetrate this armor."
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