Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 353: Capital (1)

Beijing city.

Lu Ping stood at the door of the shop, watching the teams of Qing soldiers passing by, and a trace of anxiety welled up in his heart. Mao Xiang passed an important piece of information to Lu Ping through the court channels, saying that the Qing court had begun to imitate the Zhou army's flintlock rifles.

As soon as Lu Ping received the news, he quickly passed this alarming information back to the south.

In terms of human resources and craftsmen, after the Qing court entered Beijing, it almost completely accepted the legacy of the Ming Dynasty. For example, the Ministry of Industry Firearms Manufacturing Workshop in Beijing employed a large number of craftsmen. In fact, the Qing court's top leaders had always attached importance to firearms, but their focus had always been on artillery, and the Qing court did not pay too much attention to muskets.

It was not until the end of the Battle of Tianping Mountain that the Bordered White Banner and Tulai were both killed by muskets. The flintlock musket, which became famous in that battle, naturally became the concern of Dorgon. In particular, in Dodo's will, he asked Dorgon to pay attention to muskets, and Jirgalang also wrote a letter to agree with Dodo's opinion.

Zhou's army strictly guarded the musket manufacturing workshop. After the Qing spies failed to infiltrate the workshop, they turned their attention to the Po Lu army that had already been equipped.

As the saying goes, we are not afraid of thieves stealing, but we are afraid of thieves thinking about it. With the power of a regime, it is not too difficult to obtain a weapon that has been equipped by the enemy's army.

After obtaining the flintlock rifle, Dorgon immediately ordered the craftsmen to imitate it. The self-fired musket did not have too many technical barriers. It was just a matter of changing the fuse to flint. Moreover, this was not a technology created by Meng Jun himself. The flintlock technology had been available as early as the Chongzhen period.

Although the firearms were only just beginning to show their potential, the main force in the battlefield fighting was still the strong bow and armor. Nevertheless, the Qing court, which had already been on high alert against the Zhou army, and with the outstanding record of more than 2,000 White Banner cavalry being annihilated by these firearms, Dorgon also realized that the musket was not useless.

…………

The war filled with smoke of gunpowder is well known to the world, but the war in the dark is unknown to the world.

During the day, Lu Ping concentrated on the business of the pen shop, and at night he had to worry about the affairs of the Qingluan Guard, especially the order from the Qingluan Guard headquarters, asking Lu Ping to find an opportunity to rescue the families of the surrendered generals.

Such as the families of Yang Wulie, Gao Jinku, Ke Yongsheng, Chen Shaozong, the surrendered general of Guazhou Navy, Gulbuha and many other surrendered generals.

Lu Pingguang spent a lot of effort to investigate the family situations of these people. Some of the families of these surrendered generals were killed. For example, Gao Jinku's wife and son were beheaded and thrown into the market because he captured Lekedehun, which was hated by the Qing court. The family of Yang Wulie was also killed or exiled.

Only Chen Shaozong deceived the Qing court by faking his death. Although the Qing court was dissatisfied with the destruction of the Guazhou Navy at the hands of Chen Shaozong, since he "died for the Qing Dynasty", the Qing court naturally had to take care of his family in order to win the hearts of the people. The same was true for Ke Yongsheng. Wang Wenkui never told the Qing court the reason for the loss of Huai'an, but put all the blame on Ma Sangge.

As for Gulbuha, Lu Ping had no idea where his family was, so the only ones who could be saved were the families of Chen Shaozong and Ke Yongsheng.

During his time in Beijing, Lu Ping has been promoted to the head of the three bureaus of the capital's investigation, action, and spy department, and is also the deputy commander. He is responsible for intelligence investigation, intelligence transmission, military operations, bribing officials, and the fourth bureau under the Qingluan Guard. Except for training, almost all affairs in Beijing are shouldered by Lu Ping.

Above him, there is only one Liu Guquan who can give orders directly. Liu Guquan is not in Beijing. He has been responsible for secretly infiltrating the entire northern Zhili. Lu Ping has reported to Liu Guquan more than once that there is a shortage of manpower. It is extremely difficult to just gather intelligence, not to mention actions, bribery and the like.

But Liu Guquan was quite helpless. On the one hand, he sent three spies into Beijing from Nanjing, a long distance away. On the other hand, the difference in accents between the north and the south would easily attract attention. Therefore, Liu Guquan had been recruiting spies locally these days. In northern Zhili, almost every city had spies from the Qingluan Guard. The only drawback was that these spies could not access core intelligence, and the highest-ranking person who had infiltrated the Qing court was just a constable.

………………

After running the writing shop for so long, Lu Ping had become familiar with all the shopkeepers nearby. However, the person he could talk to the most was Song Zhong, the owner of the Song’s Coffin Shop next door.

One day, Song Zhong walked to Lu Ping's store again and chatted with Lu Ping: "This guy, as long as he has money, he will be full of courage."

"That's right. You can have everything without money. Look at the price of grain. It's only going up and never going down." Lu Ping complained after hearing this.

"Who said it wasn't? If it wasn't for the big order yesterday, I wouldn't even have enough money to buy rice." Song Zhong said with a hint of complacency at the corner of his mouth.

"Not really, Manager Song is exaggerating."

Seeing that Lu Ping didn't get to the point, Song Zhong couldn't help but ask again: "Do you know what kind of business I did yesterday?"

Lu Ping hesitated for a moment and said uncertainly, "Did you sell fifty coffins yesterday?"

"How is that possible? These days, even the poor can't afford a coffin. When they die, they're just wrapped in a straw mat and buried in a mass grave. How can there be that many to buy?"

"Hey, what's the mystery? Shopkeeper Song, please tell me!"

"Hehe, Shopkeeper Lu, to be honest with you, I made a big order yesterday for a coffin. Do you know what material it is made of? Nanmu!" Song Zhong said with some pride.

Hearing this, Lu Ping asked in surprise: "Golden nanmu? Who is so rich? This is the wood used by the royal family. Who is so bold?"

Song Zhong chuckled and said, "What you said is true. Even if someone ordered it, I would not be able to find the material of golden nanmu. It is water nanmu. Although it cannot be compared with golden nanmu, it is much better than cypress, pine and the like."

Lu Ping didn't know much about wood. Seeing that Lu Ping was not interested, Song Zhong came closer and whispered, "This coffin is worth four hundred taels. Tell me, why should I be afraid of rising grain prices? Even if it doubles, I still think it's cheap!"

After saying that, he raised his eyebrows and smiled complacently. Lu Ping was a little shocked and said unconsciously: "Four hundred taels! Who is so rich?"

"I'm telling you in secret, don't let anyone know." Song Zhong whispered mysteriously.

Lu Ping nodded like a chick pecking at rice, and said, "Of course, you know me. I will keep my mouth shut and never reveal a word!"

"Jiang Family"

"Jiang family?" Lu Ping pondered carefully. After a long while, Lu Ping asked uncertainly, "Is it the Xuanfu Jiang family?"

Song Zhong nodded and said, "Yes, it's the Jiang family. I heard that the eldest son of the Jiang family died of illness. Of course, I dare not ask more, but how can he be an ordinary person if he can afford such an expensive coffin."