Qian Qiaogong kicked Zhong and staggered, almost falling down, and was hugged by Chen Zhiyuan who flashed past.

Before Qian Qiaogong could scold him, Chen Zhiyuan patted Qian Qiaogong on the shoulder and smiled: "Do you really think I'm stupid?"

Qian Qiaogong stared and said, "Then you still tell me everything? You know, the firearms that our army can fight against the Tartars. Don't you know how many soldiers this will kill our army?"

Chen Zhiyuan laughed and said, "Do you think our army's musket battalion is still a secret to the Qing court after this year's war? Even if you don't know now, after Jierhalang returns to Beijing, you may not be able to hide anything."

"Then you shouldn't take the initiative to say it. If you can hide it for a day, our army will have an advantage for one day."

Chen Zhiyuan said with sincerity: "I just listened to Wu Zheng."

Qian Qiaogong was shocked, "You mean, is this what Wu Zheng mean?"

"No, no, I mean, Wu Zheng once said something similar to me... Before, I refused to go to Jiangnan Military Academy to study and train, but Wu Zheng convinced me. He said that southerners could not defeat northerners, and they could not compete with the Tartars in terms of physique or natural combat skills. This has been verified since the Han and Tang Dynasties. In the past, the only thing that southerners could fight against northerners was the terrain of the navy and Jiangnan. But now it is different, and firearms can make up for all this."

Qian Qiaogong stared at him and asked, "Then why do you still reveal the secret of our army muskets to the Tartars?"

Chen Zhiyuan smiled strangely and said, "The Tartars were born stronger than the southerners. They fought wild animals between poor mountains and bad waters since they were born. This kind of training is something that the southerners cannot catch up in a short time. It takes two or three years for the Ming army to train a archer. Most people can only shoot sixty to eighty steps, while the Tartars can shoot eighty to one hundred steps without training. If there is no firearm, or if the coercion gun was not enough to become a weapon to restrain the Tartars, even if the Tartars knew the secret, they would not take it seriously. But now it is different. Even if the flintlock gun cannot restrain the cavalry, it has already formed a restraint on the Tartar infantry. The Tartars were afraid, and they would find a way to train the musket soldiers...."

Qian Qiaogong frowned and asked, "Isn't that harmful to our army?"

Chen Zhiyuan nodded and said, "It's harmful, but it can be more beneficial."

"What does this mean?"

"Have you ever seen a person who can easily give up the skills he is good at?" Chen Zhiyuan smiled even more strangely. "Even if the Qing court really decided to start training musketeers, it would inevitably curb the existing crossbowmen and cavalry input. But the Qing court relied on these crossbowmen and cavalry to win the world. How could it be that if you give up? Look, after today, the Qing court will not only have a dispute between Manchu and Han, but also between Manchus... You know, the concepts and combat ideas that have been developed cannot be easily changed."

Qian Qiaogong understood a little, "This is a bit reasonable. But the Qing court's territory and population are far more than our dynasty. They train tens of thousands of musketeers to compete with our army. Our dynasty has only twelve prefectures, and Wu Zheng has only six prefectures under his jurisdiction. It is already difficult to train 30,000 musketeers. How can we compete with the Qing court?"

"The Qing court is indeed far stronger than our dynasty, but their territory has just been occupied, and most of the people on the land are Han people. The larger the territory, the more troops they need to deploy. On the contrary, our dynasty has a small territory, but the troops are concentrated. The six governments under the General's Mansion have a military strength of 40,000. According to Wu Zheng, it is to form a local absolute military advantage. For example, after you and I went north and met with Jiang Quanyi and Wang Yilin, we only had less than 3,000 troops to deal with the Qing army in the three governments. This is absolutely impossible to do in Hangzhou, Jiaxing and Songjiang, because all the three governments have large armies."

Qian Qiaogong nodded silently, and he was persuaded by Chen Zhiyuan.

Chen Zhiyuan raised his head and took a long breath and said, "Even if everything is as expected by the Qing court, buy muskets and train musket soldiers. Then it is at the same starting point as our army. The distance between the individual combat power of both sides will be smoothed out, and then they will fight each other. Moreover, our army has temporarily led the Qing court in the formation of musket soldiers. If we cannot defeat the Qing army in this way, then... we will not be unfair to defeat!"

"You are right." Qian Qiaogong fully understood Chen Zhiyuan's intention.

Chen Zhiyuan completely spread the strength of the musketeers in front of the Qing court. This was not only a means to win the trust of the Qing court, but also an open plot to drag the Qing court into the mud.

The Qing court had discovered the threat of muskets to the Qing army, but it was difficult to change.

This is also the reason why in history, when the Manchus were attacked by the Eight-Nation Alliance in the late Qing Dynasty, they were still using the Jiangfang artillery cast in the Ming Dynasty to defend against the enemy.

This is also the reason why the Qing Dynasty replaced the Ming Dynasty in history was already muskets and artillery, and when dealing with the Eight-Nation Alliance, the Eight Banners cavalry were still used to fight against the enemy, and they were completely defeated.

The Qing Dynasty used cavalry and archers to win the world, how could it be possible to easily change the military branches? How could the archers be able to make these cavalry who made great achievements?

Didn’t the Qing Dynasty know that muskets and cannons are powerful?

No, not at all.

Otherwise, Huang Taiji would have been to welcome him dozens of miles because Kong Youde surrendered with the red barbarian cannons.

The Qing Dynasty was able to defeat the Ming army in subsequent battles because of the red cannons and artillery craftsmen brought by Kong Youde. After ten years of research and development, the Qing army's artillery was far ahead of the Ming army in the late Ming Dynasty.

But even so, after the Qing Dynasty won the world, it also restricted the continued research and development of firearms. In the later period, the firearms of the Ming Dynasty were even locked in the warehouse and became moldy and rusty.

Why? To gain is what the Qing people rely on, and they will win the world on the back of a horse.

But they didn't know that since the advent of muskets, they had already declared that the popularity of soldiers was irreversible when the weapons were hot.

As mentioned before, a archer must first select a soldier with large arm strength and tall arm, otherwise a longbow with more than one stone will not be able to be pulled open. Then, he must be trained to be able to shoot an arrow at least eighty steps away, and to train to be able to hit a target with a hundred steps away, which will take more time and rely on talent. There will definitely not be many such people.

Even northerners with innate advantages take a long time.

Not only does it take a lot of time, but it also costs a lot of money.

Therefore, the warriors in the Cold Weapon Age were aristocratic, and ordinary civilians did not have physical strength and weapons advantages, and they might even die on the battlefield before they were trained. This is also one of the reasons why the monopoly of generals in the past.

But anyone who can use hot weapons can be competent for them, which means that no one will be selected on the battlefield.

Muskets made those warriors like Lu Bu a joke.

Just imagine, can this allow those arrogant soldiers to accept the transformation from cavalry, archers to musketeers?

Absolutely not!
Chapter completed!