Take the warehouse back to the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 143 Calling on Sun Yuanhua

While Zhao Wen was thinking, the servant brought the food.

Zhao Wen picked up the chopsticks and started eating quickly.

"Hurry up and eat quickly, I have something to do in Denglai later."

Zhao Wen held the chopsticks and said to the crowd.

Zhao Daniu kept stuffing food into his mouth, he said vaguely: "Master, what can you do here in Denglai?"

"Never mind, hurry up and eat." Zhao Wen reprimanded in a low voice.

After a while, Zhao Wen put down his chopsticks and called the waiter over.

"How much is the total?" Zhao Wen asked, pointing to the food on the table.

The waiter looked at the food on the table, thought for a while and said, "It's seven cents in total."

"Here, here's a tael of silver, don't need to look for it." Zhao Wen directly took out a piece of broken silver from his arms, slapped it on the table, and then led Zhao Daniu and others out of the restaurant.

"Tsk tsk tsk, this restaurant is really expensive for his grandma." Zhao Daniu said with a distressed expression on his face.

The waiter looked at the backs of Zhao Wen and others leaving, and couldn't help saying: "These people are really rich."

Zhao Wen took the reins of the horse from the servant, got on the horse, asked about the governor's office, and rode towards the governor's office.

On the way to the Governor's Yamen, Zhao Wen bought some gifts in the passing shops.After all, it's a visit to someone, so it's not reasonable to go there empty-handed.

A quarter of an hour later, Zhao Wen led the people to stop in front of Governor Denglai's gate.

"Hey, who are you? This is the governor's office. You can't stop here, so hurry up."

Just as Zhao Wen and the others stopped in front of the yamen, several yamen servants standing at the entrance of the yamen hurried over.

Zhao Daniu is reckless, since he became the commander of Zhao Wen's personal guard camp, who, except Zhao Wen, would dare to talk to him like this?
Now when he heard the tone of the yamen servant, he immediately became angry.

Zhao Daniu jumped off his horse, glared at the yamen servant, and said angrily, "What did you say? Tell me again?"

"Da Niu, don't be rude." Zhao Wen jumped off his horse and hastily reprimanded him.

Zhao Daniu looked at the yamen servant, snorted coldly, turned his head away, and stopped talking.

Zhao Wen cupped his hands to the yamen servant with a smile on his face, and said, "Is your lord here?"

"Who are you? What does it matter to you whether my lord is here or not?" The chief yamen servant looked at Zhao Wen with disgust.

Zhao Wen hurriedly took out a five-liang silver ingot from his pocket and stuffed it into the hands of the yamen servant.

"A little meaning is not a respect." Zhao Wen said with a smile.

As the saying goes, a strong dragon does not suppress a local snake, and people have to bow their heads under the eaves.Now Zhao Wen is in Denglai, and he is still paying a visit to Sun Yuanhua, otherwise, he wouldn't be giving money to a yamen servant.

There is a saying that the power of money is infinite, and the attitude of the government servant who was fierce at the last moment changed instantly after seeing the money.

The head of the yamen servant weighed the silver ingot, then stuffed it into his arms, with a smile on his face, he said cautiously: "Master Sun is in the yamen, who are you?"

"You don't have to worry about us, just go in and report that a long-time friend is asking to see you." Zhao Wen laughed.

"Okay, you wait here, I'll go in and report." The yamen servant said casually, then turned around and ran into the yamen.

At this time, Sun Yuanhua was wearing a scarlet robe, and was sitting in the class room in the back hall of the yamen, dealing with government affairs.

"My lord, you have a long-standing friend asking to see you."

The yamen servant knocked on the door of the class room and said respectfully.

Sun Yuanhua put down the brush, and asked with a puzzled look: "A long-time friend? What kind of friend?"

"The little one doesn't know, but he asked the little one to report like this."

When Sun Yuanhua heard what the yamen servant said, he frowned tightly.

This Sun Yuanhua seldom communicated on weekdays. Apart from dealing with government affairs, he was basically researching firearms. He was bored in the house all day and rarely went out to make friends.In this Land of Denglai, Sun Yuanhua almost didn't have a single friend.

The sudden arrival of a so-called long-time friend made Sun Yuanhua a little confused.

"Can you see what he looks like?" Sun Yuanhua asked in a low voice.

"Long is white and clean, looks like a scholar."

Zhao Wen's appearance is that of a standard scholar in this era.

With red lips and white teeth, starry eyes and sword eyebrows, a pair of eyes are full of aura, making people feel that this person is a person who has read poetry and books at first glance.So there is nothing wrong with the description of the yamen servant.

"Scholar? This is really strange. Which scholar would come to visit me, a deviant person?" Sun Yuanhua underestimated and stood up. He put the hat on the table on his head, opened the door and walked out.

Daming at this time is not like the dynasties of wild boarskin, and Daming at this time is not as resistant to Western things as the dynasties of wild boarskin.

In Daming, many scholars had systematically studied Western science.

For example, Fang Yizhi, one of the four princes of Fushe in the late Ming Dynasty, once wrote a book called "Little Knowledge of Physics" to systematically introduce Western science.

Moreover, Xu Guangqi, Sun Yuanhua's teacher, was the first person in China to open his eyes to see the world.

Although there are many people who study Western science, most of them are folk scholars.There are still very few scholars who study Western science in the officialdom. In the eyes of people in the officialdom, studying Western science is deviant.

Of course, they are just lip service and will not force them.But he also didn't want to be close to them, so Sun Yuanhua had very few friends in the officialdom.

Although the Ming Dynasty had various flaws, it was very open academically and ideologically.Unlike the dynasties of wild boar skin, the Ming Dynasty had a large literary inquisition, imprisoning the thoughts of scholars.In Daming, scholars were very free to do whatever they wanted.

Sun Yuanhua walked to the Yamen with a puzzled expression on his face. He looked at Zhao Wen and the others, and asked suspiciously, "Which one is my long-standing friend?"

Zhao Wen stood up, smiled, and cupped his hands at Sun Yuanhua, "May I ask if your Excellency is the governor of Denglai, Sun Yuanhua, Lord Sun?"

Sun Yuanhua caressed his beard and said, "It's my official. You are the so-called long-standing friend, right?"

"I'm really sorry, this is just a crooked idea that I came up with because I was afraid that the adults would not want to see me." Zhao Wen hastily apologized.

Sun Yuanhua looked at Zhao Wen and said slowly, "What do you need to do with me?"

"Nothing, just want to talk to adults." Zhao Wen smiled.

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, he immediately snorted coldly, "Hmph, my time is very important, where is the time to talk to you?"

Sun Yuanhua turned around directly, making a gesture to leave.

Seeing this, Zhao Wen hurriedly took a step forward, and shouted loudly: "May I ask if your lord has ever encountered a situation where the barrel of a cannon is full of trachoma bubbles and cracks when casting cannons?"

Cannons in this era still use the mud mold casting method. As the name suggests, the mud mold casting method is to make a mud mold in advance and then pour molten iron into it.

This cannon-casting method seems simple and convenient, but it has many disadvantages.

The clay used in the mud-casting cannon method must be very fine clay, otherwise the cast cannon will be full of trachoma and rough.

Moreover, after the clay model is made, it must be placed in a wind room to dry in the shade without a trace of moisture.Otherwise, the water inside will be evaporated by the high temperature when the cannon is cast, making the barrel of the cannon barrel heated unevenly.

Once the barrel is heated unevenly, the inside of the barrel is full of air bubbles, and the inside of the barrel is full of cracks.

Once the above situation occurs in the cannon barrel, it means that the cannon is useless.

More than half of the cannons that Sun Yuanhua cast a few months ago had these problems.

These problems seem simple, but they are extremely difficult to solve.Sun Yuanhua discovered this problem when he first came into contact with casting cannons. Until now, more than ten years have passed, but Sun Yuanhua still has not thought of a solution to this difficulty.

Sun Yuanhua stopped, looked at Zhao Wen, and asked, "Do you know how to cast cannons?"

"Understood, why don't you understand? And I also know the way to eliminate the trachoma bubble cracks in the barrel." Zhao Wen shouted loudly.

When Sun Yuanhua heard this, his eyes lit up, and he said excitedly: "Are you serious?"

"If I dare to lie to you, I will give birth to a son without an ass hole." Zhao Wen hurriedly swore.

When Sun Yuanhua heard Zhao Wen make such a solemn oath, he nodded and said, "Come in, today I want to see what you can do to solve this problem."

Zhao Wen turned his head and said to the people behind him: "You all stay here, don't run around, I will go in with Mr. Sun."

After Zhao Wen finished speaking, he left Zhao Daniu and others outside, took the gift from the horse, and followed Sun Yuanhua into the yamen.

Just sitting in the hall of the back hall of the yamen, several servants brought Zhao Wen a cup of hot tea.

Zhao Wen put the gift on the table, sat on the chair, held the teacup, and sipped it.

Sun Yuanhua took the teacup, put it on the table, and asked impatiently: "You said you can solve the problem of trachoma bubble cracks in the barrel, how can you solve it?"

Zhao Wen smiled slightly, and said, "May I ask if you use mud to cast cannons?"

"Isn't what you said nonsense? What else can you use if you don't use a mud fan?
This mud cast cannon not only has a long cycle, but also has poor quality.At least half of the artillery in each batch of artillery is scrapped. "

Sun Yuanhua let out a long breath and said slowly.

"May I ask, have you ever thought about casting cannons with iron molds?" Zhao Wen said slowly, putting down his teacup.

Sun Yuanhua was taken aback for a moment, and asked, "Tie Fan? Can Tie Fan cast cannons?"

Zhao Wen laughed, and said, "Why can't Tie Fan cast cannons? Tie Fan can not only solve the above problems, but also improve the speed of casting cannons and the yield of cannons."

"How do you say it?" Sun Yuanhua had never heard of using iron molds to cast cannons, so he was a little confused for a while.

Zhao Wendao: "The method of casting iron cannons first divides them into four to seven sections according to the size of the iron cannons to make clay cannons.

According to the number of mud gun sections, iron mold clay molds are made. Each clay mold is divided into two parts, and the inner surface is spun with a car plate to make the surface smooth and regular, and then dried for later use.The prefabricated handle is put into the clay mold, and it is integrated with the iron mold when pouring.

When overturning an iron mold with a clay mold, first turn the muzzle section upside down on a mud plate, fill one of the petals with mud, after drying, cover the clay plate, tighten the mold, and get the first mold after pouring. A petal of an iron mold.

Then the filling mud is removed, and another iron mold can be cast in the same way.In this way, pouring section by section can be cast into a complete set of iron molds that are tenon-jointed layer by layer.

When casting an iron cannon with an iron mold, first paint the inner surface of the mold with a paint made of fine rice husk ash and fine sand mud, and then apply a second layer of paint prepared by very fine coal powder, and then tighten the iron mold. , heating, assembling the mud core, and pouring molten iron.

After solidification, take off the iron mold immediately, and remove the burrs and mud core while the cannon body is still red hot to obtain the finished product. "

After Zhao Wen finished speaking, he picked up the teacup with a smile on his face, and said with a smile: "In this way, a qualified cannon can be made successfully. Moreover, the iron molds for casting cannons can be recycled. Do you know that the blacksmiths in the country make agricultural tools?" ? That’s how they make farming tools.”

The iron casting method has actually been in China for thousands of years, but due to historical limitations, people at this time did not associate it with casting cannons.

What Zhao Wen said today may be commonplace in future generations, but in this era, it is a major technological innovation, like a thunderstorm in the clear sky, which directly solved Sun Yuanhua's problem.

Although Zhao Wen is an ignorant person in later generations, he may be admitted to the highest institution in China, no matter how bad he is.Coupled with the development of technology in later generations, many things can be found on the Internet.

And Zhao Wen happened to have seen the process of Tie Fan casting cannons on the Internet, and now he just recounted it.

When Sun Yuanhua heard the words, he suddenly realized, his face was full of excitement, "So, so it is. This old man has fallen into a demonic barrier. Listening to your words today, just like that Longzhong, directly solved the old man's demonic barrier."

Sun Yuanhua hurriedly got up, arched his hands towards Zhao Wen, and bowed, "The most holy master once said that three people must have my teacher. When we meet today, it is true."

Zhao Wen hurriedly stood up from the chair and helped Sun Yuanhua up, "Your Excellency, please don't break me."

(End of this chapter)