Prince of Tang Dynasty

Chapter 369 Designing a Cannon
Li Shimin is also a person who is used to strong winds and waves, and he has a deep understanding of the four words "evil heart", but after he became emperor, he basically killed all those who dared to be "evil" to him, Wu Qingli is an exception.

Looking at Gao Ming standing below, Li Shimin rubbed his temples tiredly after sitting down.

"Gao Ming, don't bother with these trivial matters in the future, and build that cannon for me, that's the most important thing."

For Li Shimin, the death of a few palace maids and eunuchs is really only a trivial matter. Compared with this kind of thing, it is more important to build a cannon as soon as possible to attack Goguryeo.

Seeing his tired look, Gao Ming suddenly smiled, and then came behind him, helping him pinch his shoulders while laughing.

"I'm doing this for your own good, okay, let's not talk about this, let's talk about another thing, I think it's better for girls to remarry at the age of 16, we should include this in the law of the Tang Dynasty, you Say it?"

Li Shimin: "..."

Damn, Datang law is what you say?Add whatever you want?
As an out-and-out feudal emperor, Li Shimin is very urgent about population growth. In his opinion, delaying the age of girls' marriage will delay the birth of newborns, which is unacceptable to him.

If someone else raised such an opinion with him, he would definitely reject it directly, but now it is Gao Ming who put forward this opinion, in order not to dampen Gao Ming's enthusiasm, so he can only be vague.

"Let's talk about this later!"

Hearing Li Shimin's words, Gao Ming immediately understood that he must not be happy, so Gao Ming quickly continued to persuade.

"Old man, I know you want Datang's population to grow rapidly, but girls are too young to get married, and they haven't grown up yet. If they give birth to children, not only will they themselves be in danger of killing two people, but the children born will suffer from physical and mental damage. Intellectually deficient."

"I know!"

As soon as Gao Ming finished speaking, Li Shimin nodded.

"I know all this, but if I don't do this, I'm afraid no one will be able to use me in Tang Dynasty!"

Hearing what Li Shimin said, Gao Ming immediately laughed.

"Actually, you don't have to worry about this problem at all. First of all, the current population of my Tang Dynasty has more than 400 million households, and the number of people is nearly 2000 million. Even if it is stipulated that girls cannot marry before the age of 16, it will not have much effect on the growth of the population. Influence, and, have you forgotten the technology I mentioned to you earlier?"

"Technology? You mean cannon?"

Hearing that Li Shimin's first reaction to technology was cannons, Gao Ming was a little ashamed, but he still nodded.

"It can also be understood in this way, because once a weapon of war like a cannon is made, the lives of my soldiers in the Tang Dynasty will be guaranteed, and more soldiers will come back from the battlefield alive by then, so I think Instead of worrying about not having enough population, you should think about what to do if the population grows too fast."

"This……"

Obviously, Li Shimin has been worried about the problem of insufficient population. As for the problem of too many people, he has never thought about it.

Based on his trust in Gao Ming, Li Shimin frowned and thought for a while, then nodded.

"Okay, if you can build a cannon, then let alone such a trivial matter as getting a girl married at the age of 16, even if it is a bigger matter, I will promise you!"

As soon as Li Shimin finished speaking, a small figure jumped out from behind the screen.

"Father, this is what you said. When the elder brother makes the cannon, we will cancel the marriage between Si Zi and that Duan Guan!"

Seeing Li Shimin's anxious expression, Li Shimin couldn't help laughing immediately.

"Yes, I agreed. As long as your elder brother can build a cannon that can defeat Goguryeo and save the lives of my soldiers in the Tang Dynasty, I will not care about your marriage in the future. Even if you can't get married at that time, I will not care." !"

As he said that, Li Shimin stretched out his finger, and pampered Li Mingda's little head, and seeing her acting like a baby, he laughed again.

It can be seen from this that Li Shimin loves Li Mingda's daughter from the bottom of his heart.

Looking at the happy scene of the father and daughter in front of him, Gao Ming also understood that his task was completed, so he bowed his hands to Li Shimin immediately.

"Old man, I have already ordered someone to find a blacksmith. I will go back to make the blueprint of the cannon now. Once everyone arrives, I will start manufacturing. If all goes well, it will be completed in less than three months!"

Hearing about Gao Ming, Li Shimin was even happier.

"Okay, starting today, Gao Ming, you will concentrate on making this cannon for me. I can't wait to see how powerful this weapon of war you are talking about is."

"Then just wait and see!"

After finishing speaking, Gao Ming bowed his hands to Li Shimin again, then turned around and left the imperial study room, and went back to the East Palace.

After returning to the East Palace, Gao Ming plunged into his study, picked up a pen and began to write and draw.

The cannon designed by Gao Ming was the earliest muzzle-loading cannon, and it was also the earliest smoothbore cannon. After all, it was impossible to make a rifled cannon with Datang's level of craftsmanship, so he could only settle for the next best thing.

The structure of the smoothbore gun determines that its muzzle cannot be too large, otherwise the volume and barrel length must be increased to increase the hit rate and power, just like the Hongyi cannon introduced from Europe in the late Ming Dynasty, with a length of three meters , with a caliber of more than 100 mm, it weighs more than two tons!
And what Gao Ming is drawing on the blueprint now is the Hongyi Cannon!

"Damn it, although the Hongyi cannon is a bit bulky, it has a long range. The effective range of 500 meters alone can make those Goguryeo sticks completely dumbfounded. Hahahahaha..."

There is no steel in Datang, and the cannons designed by Gao Ming are all made of iron. In order to ensure that the iron cannons will not explode, Gao Ming specially designed twelve iron hoops on the barrel, and at the same time thickened the cannon of the cannon. tube thickness.

Although the weight has increased, but for the sake of safety and practicality, Gao Ming has no intention of changing his mind.

"If the two horses don't move, it's a big deal to use a four-horse cart. Even if there are a hundred cannons, it's only four hundred horses. It's a trivial matter!"

Thinking of this, Gao Ming suddenly had a thought, and simply increased the barrel of the cannon to five meters, the caliber of the cannon was correspondingly increased to [-]mm, and the thickness of the barrel and the iron hoop were also increased accordingly.

Gao Ming didn't think there was any problem with his design. After all, the breech-loading gun had only the same technical content. It would just be a little more troublesome to load and clean, and nothing else would be a problem.

After the design was finished, Gao Ming made a rough calculation. The weight of this "enhanced version" of the Hongyi Cannon is likely to exceed six tons!

After discovering this, Gao Ming immediately smacked his lips.

"Tsk tsk... Good guy, if you build one of this thing, you can build three other cannons, but the power must be greater!"

Having said that, Gao Ming immediately slapped his hands.

"Okay, let's make this one. I named it Super Shenwei Invincible Fortress Cannon Enhanced Type I. Well, the name is simply awesome..."

Thinking of the shock that the cannon he was involved in would bring, Gao Ming was quite complacent at this time, and he suddenly thought of the song "Great Wind Song" by the famous "warlord poet" Zhang Zongchang.

"The cannons are firing and his mother is being bombarded, Vega and Hainei are returning home..."

When Gao Ming couldn't help reciting this poem, a "puchi" laugh suddenly came from the door.

(End of this chapter)