The rise of the prince

Chapter 663 Technological Innovation + New Cannon
After Li Xingzhou returned to Beijing, the first few days were not peaceful, and he did not have the leisure he imagined.

The celebration banquet was postponed until the night of August [-]th, but that didn't mean he was fine. He wrote to the Privy Council. After all, this great battle would definitely be recorded in history. Historians need detailed information, and the Privy Council also needs to back up the records.

In addition, the emperor summoned him to the palace every afternoon to talk about the details of the war in the north. Of course, Li Xingzhou couldn't refuse. He could also take this opportunity to give credit to Di Zhi, Wei Yubai, Yan Shen and others.

Regarding history, because of the belief of real people, people are always loyal to amplifying their personal power, but in fact, most things are the result of the joint efforts of many people. No matter how powerful an individual is, it plays more role in the historical trend The role of guiding and conforming to the general trend.

In the battle of Guanbei, whether it was him, Di Zhi, Wei Yubai, Ji Chunsheng, Liu Ji, etc., no one could have won such a complete victory without anyone, and not only them, but also many soldiers of the new army, and Yelu Dashi The mistakes made and so on all lead to the result of this war. Objective analysis is very important, and it cannot be simply attributed to whom.

He naturally hoped that the emperor would give more credit to Di Zhi and Yan Shen.

The reason is very simple, he is not a fool who is overjoyed, he won this battle, his prestige is enough to overwhelm the prince, and he is sitting on the Diaoyutai. What is needed at this time is to cultivate his confidants and build his own team in the court.

This is very important, and Li Xingzhou is very clear in his heart, because his rise has only been in the past two or three years, and he cannot be compared with the prince who has been in the court for so many years.

Another reason is that he wants to purge the court and adjust the personnel structure in the court. Then the court will inevitably be in turmoil. He must have his own people to support him.

In the early Qing Dynasty, a very famous Confucian Wang Fuzhi once said that the failure of the Song Dynasty was not due to insufficient money and food, nor was it due to the failure of soldiers, but the failure of personnel. Li Xingzhou very much agrees with this point of view.

Think about those famous generals in the Song Dynasty, Di Qing, Yang Ye, Han Shizhong, Zhong Shidao, Yue Fei, etc., they all have one characteristic in common, that is, they have made great military exploits, displayed extremely high military genius, fought beautiful battles, and ended up with nothing. Wrapped in horse leather, he died in battle, but was defeated by his own people.

One or two can also be said by coincidence. It is not a coincidence that so many famous generals with great military exploits were finally defeated by their own people.

Di Qing once defended his friend who was also a soldier, saying that he was brave and good at fighting, and he was good at killing the enemy. However, he was refuted by the high-ranking officials at the time. How can it be good for you?"

Then he killed his soldier friend in front of Di Qing.

This sentence can be regarded as explaining the unspoken rules of the officialdom of the Song Dynasty, and also explaining why it failed.

No matter how bravely you fight the enemy, no matter how much military merit you have, you will not be ranked in the court and will not be recognized. There is only one kind of "good son", and the one who sings as the number one scholar outside the Donghua Gate is Literati use literature to control martial arts.

And Jingguo also has this kind of situation, such as the crime of Yang Hongzhao. If the crime was committed by civil servants, the court and the government must be unanimous. There is nothing wrong with defending him, but the actions of Tong Guan and others implicated There is a possibility that he will be exonerated once or twice.

But Yang Hongzhao was a warrior, and no one would speak for him as a warrior. On the contrary, the officials counted his crimes in detail and wished they could get rid of them soon.

As a result, Yang Hongzhao is very likely to lose his head now.

If a group of soldiers who came here dared to gather outside Donghua Gate to intercede, it would be a rebellion!Disobedience, crimes above, no one said anything when he was killed.

If you're a reader, it's fine.

Li Xingzhou was actually very angry when Fang told him about it. Do they know what's going on in the north?

They didn't know it at all, but when they realized that Yang Hongzhao was a warrior, civil and military were opposed, they subconsciously wanted to arrange him. In addition, the Taizu organized the training not to kill scholar-bureaucrats, and now they were unscrupulous.

These things must be corrected when he takes office, so he must have his own team.

The rest is most concerned about, of course, the second-generation steam engine of the palace. Li Xingzhou hurriedly went to see it that night when he came back. Qiu'er picked it up and turned it around twice.This nima seamless steel pipe!

The world's first seamless steel pipe was born in the backyard of Prince Jing Guojin's mansion!

Using such a steel pipe as the barrel, the power and accuracy of the musket can be improved to a higher level, and not only the barrel, but being able to make a barrel means that it can also be used as a barrel!
These are far from the credit of Qiu'er alone. Qiu'er told him that during this process, Yue'er, Tie Niu, Tie Niu's younger sister Tie Hua, Zhao Si, Zhu Rong's daughter Zhu Lu and others, as well as the craftsmen in the mansion, were all involved. Give her a great help.

Because although she can design according to the purpose of the work based on the physics knowledge she taught, there is a world of difference between the design and the realization of engineering. She doesn't understand engineering construction, so she can't do it.

It is the many craftsmen in the palace who complete the manufacture of the steam engine. Without them, Qiu'er's design would be nothing on paper.

Li Xingzhou happily ordered to reward all workers who made contributions to the research and construction of steam engines.

I also thought of the idea of ​​setting up the palace's own research laboratory. At least for now, Qiu'er and Zhao Si are people who can gather a group of people to achieve some kind of invention or research together.

Qiuer led many craftsmen to realize the steam engine from design to engineering construction, which took more than a year.

And Zhao Si did not fall behind. He has been committed to the improvement of artillery. At first, he really thought of using rifling to increase the accuracy, ensure the flight trajectory of the shell, and realize the explosion of the shell.

As a result, it has been limited by the processing technology and cannot be realized. Now, the appearance of the steam engine has given him a huge boost.

First of all, the barrel processed by the steam boring machine is longer, with higher strength and toughness, and the air tightness is not at the same level as the previous artillery. Just replacing it with a newly processed barrel will greatly increase the accuracy, range, and power.

But these are still not enough. Based on these, Zhao Si changed the front filling into the back filling, because the precision of the steam lathe processing has increased, the air tightness is not a problem, and the back loading becomes a matter of course.

However, because the gun barrel was seamlessly processed in one piece, the lead hole had to be changed to the bolt. Zhao Si was very keen. He also found that the hole in the bolt affected the power of the gun, but he couldn't find a good way.

Two days after returning to Beijing, Li Xingzhou worked out at night, and went to see Zhao Si's new cannon with Wei Yubai during the day.

In the back mountain, Zhao Si confidently asked the artillerymen from the new army to test fire his new cannon. Compared with the cannons in service in the new army, this kind of cannon was "slimer" and had a longer and thinner barrel. The end is smaller, and the thickness of the front end of the barrel is the same.

This is because the one-piece seamless processing allows the barrel to not worry about impurities and bubbles during processing. Regardless of the small size of the barrel, the strength and toughness of the barrel are not comparable to the previous barrel, and the caliber is not small.

The previous gun barrel was processed with molten steel piece by piece against a hollow mold, and then melted and cast into a whole gun barrel. During such processing, the molten steel will fully contact the oxygen in the air and various impurities in the mold, resulting in Bubbles, uncontrollable chemical reactions, reduced strength, and poor quality, but this was the only processing method in Wangfu at that time.

Now, the gun barrel processed by the Wangfu is processed into a steel column as a whole. After being forged, the middle of the steel column is hollowed out with a steam engine. Tubes can be compared, because this is nineteenth century technology.

So Zhao Si's new gun is naturally "slim".

Because it is a backward rotation, the reloading speed is several times faster than the current guns of the new army. Wei Yubai's eyes lit up, and he also exclaimed beside him: "Mr. Enough to reload this new gun three or four times."

Li Xingzhou was also very happy: "The rear loading is not only fast, but also easy to clean."

Just as he was talking, the gunner over there had finished loading, so he stood up and saluted, and asked for orders from this side.

"My lord!" Zhao Si looked at him excitedly.

"Fire." Li Xingzhou couldn't wait, and immediately ordered, because he knew that this was an explosive shell. The original purpose of Zhao Si's research on the rifled gun was not for accuracy, but to stabilize the flight posture of the shell, so as to realize the explosive shell with the front load.

After receiving the order, the artillery over there had already started firing, and the target was a stone wall a mile away.

"Boom!" With the flash of fire, the whistling of the shells became sharper this time, even tending to overwhelm the sound of the shells. Wei Yubai subconsciously covered his ears, and Li Xingzhou's heart jumped and he became excited.

Although he couldn't see the shell, he understood that it was because the shell was moving faster!Greater kinetic energy, faster speed, longer range, higher precision!

Between the electric light and the flint, there was a loud noise in the distance, and the stone wall was blasted instantly. The fire suddenly appeared, and the gravel flew randomly. Blue smoke and a mess within a few meters, the stone wall has long been destroyed.

"What is that?" Wei Yubai pointed to the distance in disbelief.

Zhao Si quickly came over and explained: "Miss Wei, this is a new shell. The prince used to call it a flower shell, which means that the shell is filled with gunpowder and lead bullets. After being fired, it explodes. The lethality is greatly increased. It can also kill horses and Man-made mass destruction."

Wei Yubai looked at him in disbelief, Li Xingzhou was complacent, yes, Zhao Sizhen could speak, and gave him the credit, enjoying Wei Yubai's adoring eyes, he felt so at ease.

After firing a few more rounds, he and Wei Yubai also quickly discovered another terrifying aspect of this cannon, that is the accuracy!
At a distance of one mile, if it was the artillery of the old new army, the hit rate of hitting human-shaped targets was only about [-]%, but Zhao Si's new artillery, with a distance of one mile, really realized where to shoot!

He fired five rounds in a row, each time hitting the intended target. Seeing behind him, Wei Yubai was speechless with his mouth wide open. The huge killing range, terrifying accuracy, and three or four times the rate of fire.
What would be the result if such artillery was fully equipped with the new army!
She bowed her hands to Zhao Sigong sincerely, and said with emotion: "Before the prince said that Mr. Zhao can reach thousands of troops and millions of troops, I thought I had said that, but now it seems appropriate."

Zhao Si hurriedly cupped his hands in embarrassment: "Miss Wei was joking, joking."

Then Zhao Si reported some new things to them, such as the range of this new cannon, if fired upwards at a 45-degree angle, it can reach an astonishing [-] miles!

What is the concept of twenty miles? It takes an hour or two for fully armed infantry to cover the distance!
Moreover, Zhao Si and his assistants have begun to record ballistic trajectories by shooting continuously and write shooting manuals.

Li Xingzhou was more and more relieved. After several years of training, Zhao Si not only improved and invented firearms by himself, but also developed a relatively scientific process for the use and testing of firearms.

However, Zhao Si also raised a problem, that is, opening a hole in the bolt will affect the power of the artillery, but it will not be able to ignite without opening the hole. Ignite autonomously.

Li Xingzhou patted him on the shoulder, laughed and said, "I'll help you solve this problem!"

Li Xingzhou dared to let go of his harsh words, naturally because he had a well-thought-out plan. This technology is nothing more than primer for bullets and shells. It involves chemistry, and it is simple chemistry. Someone has produced the main ingredients needed in the [-]th century, but they don’t know how to use them. .

And he could have made it earlier, but the reason why he didn't do that was because at that time, with the processing and manufacturing level of the palace, it was completely useless.

Even if he made it out, the Wangfu did not have the technical ability to manufacture breech-loading guns and breech-loading rifles, and now the conditions are ripe.

Of course, these two days are naturally too busy. First of all, Xiao Biesheng is newly married. He is busy exchanging feelings and skills with Gillian and Shiyu. He needs to prepare for the celebration banquet.

After the Mid-Autumn Festival, he was completely free, so he had plenty of time to study slowly.

In the afternoon, when Li Xingzhou was enjoying He Qian's massage, drinking fruit wine with ice, and basking comfortably in the sun, an unexpected guest came, his sister-in-law Princess Yongming.

Seeing her coming, Li Xingzhou naturally couldn't neglect her, anyway, she was Gillian's friend and his sister-in-law.

As for the reason for her visit, Li Xingzhou did not expect that she came to ask him about Di Zhi's situation. In his impression, the two had always been at odds, so he did not expect that she would actually come to ask about Di Zhi's situation at this time.

Li Xingzhou naturally told the truth. Of course, he also focused on Di Zhi's heroic performance, saying that he was the first hero in the northern battlefield, hoping to improve the relationship between the two.

Unexpectedly, when he mentioned that Di Zhi was seriously injured, Princess Yongming asked anxiously, as if he was very concerned.

Li Xingzhou quickly explained to her that there was no danger, as long as time would heal, and that Di Zhi would return from the northern meeting next month, after asking a lot, she left in peace.

Li Xingzhou said with emotion: "A woman's heart is a needle under the sea. Isn't it the same as meeting an enemy when she saw Di Zhi before?"

He Qian snorted: "You stinky men don't understand girls' minds at all."

"Hehehe, do I smell bad?" Li Xingzhou smirked.

"Stinky" He Qian felt a little guilty.

Li Xingzhou picked her up immediately: "Go, I'll let you smell it."

(End of this chapter)