The eldest grandson of Emperor Ming Dynasty!

Chapter 674 A Firearm That Transcends The Times

Wucheng.

With the arrival of the first lunar month, lights and festoons began to be everywhere here, gradually creating the atmosphere of the New Year.

After all, Zhu Yuanzhang is also here. As the emperor of Ming Dynasty, of course he has to make a show.

However, there are not many Han people here, most of them are passing businessmen.

I just heard that His Majesty has visited Wucheng in the south and will celebrate the New Year here, so more and more businessmen from the Ming Dynasty rushed over here.

For them, where His Majesty is, there will be a feeling of hometown.

Maritime merchants are not as comfortable as imagined. They drift on the sea for a long time and always face countless dangers.

Some of these dangers come from nature, and some come from other businessmen.

Although there are no pirates in the waters close to Daming due to the suppression of the Daming Navy, but who can control so many things at sea.

On the boundless sea, let alone hundreds of people died, even tens of thousands of people would not make any noise.

The sea is the best place to destroy corpses and traces. If you throw them towards the sea, you don't need to worry about anything. Even if Bao Qingtian is reborn and Di Renjie is alive, it is impossible to find any clues.

Because of the opening of the sea, and now that Daming's industry is getting more and more prosperous, it also stimulates the prosperity of the sea in a disguised form.

Merchant ships from all over the world come and go more closely, but all coastal countries will invest in this maritime trade. The huge profit promotion has already become a veritable maritime silk road.

Compared with doing business, there is no doubt that black eating black comes faster.

Maybe you only need to rob a mall to get unimaginable wealth.

Ming's merchant ships are not that easy to rob. Generally speaking, they are equipped with powerful firepower, matchlock guns or artillery. Ordinary merchant ships don't even have the opportunity to get close.

Fortunately, generally speaking, most Ming merchant ships are more disciplined and seldom engage in robbery.

Maybe it's because they don't like it, or maybe it's because they are afraid of the laws of Ming Dynasty.

In Daming, apart from silk, tea, porcelain and other lucrative goods, the most popular matchlock guns are even more lucrative.

With the continuous equipment of the matchlock guns, it has completely spread in the Ming army.

And a large number of arsenals were established in various provinces.

The craftsmanship of the matchlock gun is not complicated to say the least, it is mainly in terms of conception, even if it is granular gunpowder, it only takes a few gropings to achieve it.

The only thing that is a bit technically difficult is probably the fire bomb.

It's just that as there are more and more gunpowder craftsmen in Ming Dynasty, it is difficult not to leak the technical secrets of fire bombs.

These days, the timid are starved to death, and the bold are supported to death.

In the face of huge interests, there is no possibility of any law being bound.

Some big families have already secretly started to build gunpowder factories, and then sold them to other countries through maritime trade.

Rough craftsmanship is not a problem, nor is it expensive. The matchlock guns produced by these underground factories have become the most popular goods.

Even though the imperial court had discovered the existence of such contraband and began to conduct strict investigations, and even many families were discovered and their entire families were ransacked, the successors still flocked to them.

The construction of the underground factory has also become more secretive.

The locations of these underground factories are often located in places where there are few people, far away from Daming City, so it is very difficult to search for them.

There are even some big families who simply find remote deserted islands in the sea, build gunpowder factories on them, and then sell them by sea.

In this way, it can also largely avoid being detected at the port.

At present, the technology of matchlock guns has begun to spread no matter in the Nanyang region or in more distant countries.

After all, such an artifact of individual combat may perform poorly in large-scale legion battles, but it is almost decisive in small-scale battles.

The most important thing is the cost.

Matchlock guns are cheap to manufacture. Aside from labor, a couple of silver can be made. Besides, the underground arsenal will also save materials. It doesn't think about durability at all. As long as it can fire, it doesn't matter.

These matchlock guns will not pass the inspection when they leave the factory, and there will be no test firing. As long as they are made, they can only be sold.

For bombing, it has long been commonplace.

Whether to kill yourself while aiming at the enemy depends on the mercy of the heavens.

But generally speaking, at least the first dozen rounds will be relatively stable. After all, most of them are made of inferior materials, and it is normal for them to be unbearable.

Such a situation is more in line with the interests of firearms smugglers.

If a matchlock gun can be used for a year and a half, and it is almost like a government-made gun, how can it be sold later.

"It really doesn't feel safe."

Zhu Ying took a few guards for a walk in Wucheng, and almost all the merchants he saw, including their guards, were carrying matchlock guns.

Not only Han Chinese, but also businessmen from other countries.

After all, this is not the territory directly under the Ming Dynasty, and there is no law against guns. Obviously, neither Zhu Yunqi nor the Lu family care so much.

"Although the arquebus they carry looks crude, as demand arises, good guns will gradually weed out other defective ones."

"Driven by interests, it will not take long to develop a fine matchlock gun."

"At present, there are more and more arsenals in Ming Dynasty. As long as you spend enough money, it is not difficult to find a good gunpowder craftsman."

"Looking at the replacement of the flintlock gun, it is already on the agenda."

Seeing the situation overseas with my own eyes is more eye-catching than simple information on paper.

The flintlock gun was actually manufactured in the Gunpowder Department of the Imperial Capital of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the sealing technique is very demanding, don't underestimate folk artists. You must know that small ornaments such as gold and silver jewelry can be extremely detailed in the hammering technique. Find a few highly skilled craftsmen. Master, rubbing a flintlock gun is not too difficult.

It's just that in the sealing process, the technical requirements are higher than that of the matchlock gun. This is completely done by the master craftsman, and the production speed is the same as that of a turtle.

Mainly because of the high failure rate.

Even if it is a master master, out of ten flintlock guns, on average, six of them are unqualified.

Flint is also involved here.

Especially in terms of springs, it is also a delicate manual work. If the elasticity is not enough and the force of the blow is too small, it will be difficult for the flint to ignite.

Daming has no stock of high-purity flint at all. Although it is already being searched for and mined, the output cannot be raised immediately.

The flint, that is, flint, which is commonly used to ignite fires on the market now, usually requires several, or even more than ten strokes, before it can nod successfully.

Such a flint has absolutely no way of being applied to a flintlock.

After you can't aim at the enemy, you have to fire five or six shots, or even a dozen shots to shoot.

In such a comparison, it is really not as stable as the matchlock gun. The hemp rope for fuel is extremely cheap and can be made casually.

This is also a key factor that has always limited the mass production of flintlock guns.

At present, there are nearly [-] high-quality flintlock guns in stock in Daming, which is still produced in about two years.

The accuracy and range of the flintlock gun are incomparable to the matchlock gun.

But it is meaningless to make more, because there are too few high-purity flints, and flint itself is a consumable, and a certain amount of reserves is also required.

In the team of this southern tour, there were two centurions, as the personal guards of Zhu Ying and Zhu Yuanzhang, and they were equipped with flintlock guns.

Right now on Zhu Ying's waist, there is a short-barreled flintlock gun.

This short-barreled flintlock gun is already a firearm beyond the current era, and it can even be described as a work of art.

The spring inside and the barrel are made of fine steel that has been tempered thousands of times.

The gun barrel is even more polished using the craft of making gold jewelry.

The wood on the gun body is made of expensive golden nanmu, on which there are dragon patterns carved by the current great Ming engraving masters.

The most important thing is that the short-barreled flintlock in Zhu Ying's hand is a serious breech-loading gun.

The biggest technical problem with breech-loading guns is the impact of the cap, which is not a problem.

The key to the problem is mercury fulminate, which was invented in the early nineteenth century.

Mercury fulminate is a lively little thing that is very sensitive to vibrations, and it will explode when it is impacted. It is like the "smashing cannon" played by many children in later generations, that is, in the firecrackers that go off when thrown on the ground, there is mercury fulminate this thing.

Zhu Ying was not a master of chemistry in her previous life, so it is impossible to say that mercury fulminate can be invented now.

But if the fire cap does not have this thing, it is difficult to fire from the breech.

But when you think about it, it's not completely impossible.

Can be made by hand.

The short-barrel flintlock bullet in Zhu Ying's hand is made of silver alone, and the outside has rifling carvings that fit inside the barrel, which can better improve accuracy.

Silver as thin as paper is wrapped with granulated gunpowder, and at the bottom of the bullet, it is wrapped with a layer of high-precision flint.

In order to better achieve the ignition effect, this layer of flint flakes will be soaked in grease for more than ten hours before being added to the bottom of the silver bullet.

At the firing point of the barrel, there is a thin needle.

When struck, the ignited flint carries a spark from the needle to the base of the silver bullet, where it ignites.

These precision parts are all finely ground by those craftsmen with very delicate craftsmanship.

Just a silver bullet, even if there is no process error, it will take at least half a month to make it.

The main reason is that the failure rate of flint flakes is too high, probably not even one-tenth.

After all, the high-precision flint will ignite if you don't pay attention.

The short-barreled flintlock gun in Zhu Ying's hand now is not much different from the pistols of later generations.

But even so, the life of this gun is very limited.

It is estimated that dozens of shots may be fired, and the internal structure will change, resulting in the possibility of bombing.

Because it involves the structure of precision parts, there is no high-precision processing of later generations, so gold or silver can only be used instead, and deformation will be easier.

Once there is a problem with the air tightness, the chamber will naturally explode.

But for Zhu Ying now, it is completely enough.

Around Zhu Ying's waist, there is a special leather bag, which contains special silver bullets covered with oiled paper.

Although it needs to be reloaded every time a shot is fired, just like the sniper rifles of later generations, it is simply an invincible artifact for self-defense.

This is the direction of the development of guns in the future, at least 200 years beyond the current firearms.

Shopping in Wucheng, you can really feel two worlds.

One is a businessman.

Most of the conversations among these people are mainly in Chinese. Even foreign businessmen, who speak Chinese very awkwardly and can't speak clearly, still use Chinese.

This is because for all maritime merchants, the most profitable trading place is Daming.

No matter how difficult it is to learn, you have to concentrate on learning. It is easy to be sold through translation, or there may be errors in understanding.

Secondly, after the Ming Dynasty opened the sea, merchants engaged in maritime trade were as dense as mushrooms after a spring rain. This also led to the fact that the largest number of people in maritime trade were the people of Daming.

This makes Chinese more popular.

But any businessman who wants to engage in maritime trade, no matter which country he is from, the first step is to learn Chinese.

Otherwise, even if you arrive in Daming, you will be blind if you cannot communicate.

Apart from the merchants in Wucheng, there are local aborigines.

These common people couldn't understand Chinese at all, because Zhu Yunqi had no relationship with opening a Han school, except for a few nobles who had the financial resources to study, [-]% could only know Zhan.

And because of the influence of Indian culture, Cham people of high caste do not even communicate in Cham, but use Sanskrit.

As a result, it is difficult for the people at the bottom to communicate with the nobles or with the outside world.

The Cham language has no written inheritance, and Sanskrit has Sanskrit.

It is impossible for these people to even know how to read, let alone talk about cultural inheritance.

The scriptures and laws of Champa Kingdom are all in Sanskrit, which is tantamount to completely isolating ordinary people.

"What a great opportunity, why can't we grasp it."

Zhu Ying was a little lucky, but luckily she came to see it by herself, otherwise it would be difficult to understand these customs through some information.

These common people were abandoned by the nobles, and they could easily be drawn into Daming's team without much effort.

Coupled with the current atmosphere of learning Chinese, it is easy for them to accept it.

Now, Zhu Ying also understands why Zhu Yunwen and the Lu family did not open a Chinese school.

This was probably due to the resistance of the occupying nobles in Wucheng.

These nobles naturally do not want the untouchables to have the right to learn knowledge, so they will naturally try their best, even if they give up their benefits, it will affect Zhu Yunqi and the Lu family.

There is no Han school here, but there are private schools.

The nobles would rather pay a higher price to hire Han Chinese as teachers to teach Sinology than to be classmates with low-caste untouchables.

From Zhu Yunqi's point of view, it seems that this method can also stabilize his own rule.

After all, in Wucheng, apart from the [-] elite soldiers brought by Zhu Yunqi, there were hardly many Han Chinese.

For the time being, it can only rely on the original aristocratic ruling system in Wucheng.

But these are not in the interests of Zhu Ying, let alone Daming.

(End of this chapter)