Guide to Traveling through the Northern Song Dynasty.

Chapter 709 0704 [Shocking Thunder]

"Bah! It's bitter."

Ju Ming squatted beside the melon field and spat out the watermelon he had just eaten.

Zhu Guoxiang chewed and tasted it carefully: "This one has only a hint of bitterness, but it can be used to quench thirst."

He picked up his son's melon again, took a bite and frowned and said, "You are really bitter. The watermelon seeds are quite big and can be used to fry the melon seeds."

"I really miss the crisp, sweet and big watermelon with red flesh," Ju Ming said with emotion. "The watermelons in front of me are all white or yellow flesh. They don't taste good at first sight. Hurry up and grow sweet watermelons."

Zhu Guoxiang said: "It's not that easy. You have to wait for the watermelon gene to mutate by luck."

Zhu Guoxiang stretched out his hand and called several officials from the Department of Agriculture: "When you are thirsty, eat these watermelons. If they are too bitter to eat, give them to the livestock. Select the best watermelons that are sweet or not bitter and keep the seeds. , plant again next year.”

"Yes!" urged the agricultural officials to accept the order.

The father and son walked all the way. Not far from the watermelon field was a large sand fruit forest.

"Okay, remember to go back to Jinmingchi for dinner." Zhu Guoxiang reminded.

This used to be a mass grave, and anyone could be buried here.

Later, Cai Jing turned it into Luzeyuan, the official charity cemetery. If you want to bury it again, you have to go through the procedures. After all, this is Cai Xianggong's political achievement, and everything must meet the standards and be beautiful.

Zhu Ming's bunch of wives, concubines, and children are all recuperating from the summer heat in Jinming Pool, which is much cooler than the East Palace.

Arriving at the parking lot of Jinmingchi, Ju Ming rode on Cornucopia's grandson and said to his father, "I'm going to the southeastern suburbs."

As for apples, there were tributes in the Tang Dynasty, and they were called Bimbao fruits according to Buddhist scriptures at that time. People in the Song Dynasty had never seen apples again, so they could only make far-fetched assumptions and mistook the Buddha's Eye Fruit for the Bimbao Fruit in the Buddhist scriptures.

Bai Sheng smiled stiffly: "Your Highness, why don't you let me wear my armor and you can chop me with a knife."

Ju Ming first picked up a pair of cloth face armor and asked: "How is the effect?"

Zhu Guoxiang introduced with a smile: "About the Five Dynasties period, two species have been differentiated, one is the genus Apple, and the other is the genus Prunus. When you went to the supermarket in the past, the big red plums were probably the ones that were differentiated. Out of the plum."

Ju Ming picked up the cloth armor to try on, and said to Bai Sheng, "Cut me."

Ju Ming pointed to the Shaguolin and said: "This fruit is very delicious, it looks like apples and plums."

Further ahead is Jinmingchi, which is completely free and open before and after the Dragon Boat Festival, and ordinary people can also see many lively programs. Now it has to be closed for two months, because the emperor and the prince often bring their wives and children to go boating and enjoy the cool air.

This thing is also called Ringo, a species of Apple. When people in the Song Dynasty wrote poems, they often called it Begonia.

Today's officials of the Ming Dynasty call the experimental fields of the Ministry of Agriculture as the "Imperial Garden" and are proud to eat the fruits and vegetables in the "Imperial Garden".

This sand fruit forest is original. After careful management by the agricultural officials, the fruit is more abundant and better than before. After it matured last year, except for a few seeds, the rest were used to reward concubines and ministers.

There are more and more types of crops in the experimental fields of the Agriculture Department.

Taking a few guards with him, Ju Ming galloped all the way, and soon arrived at the ordnance testing ground in the southeastern suburbs (the gunpowder factory was also nearby).

Peng Xiu, the chief officer of the Ordnance Test Factory, said: "The cost is almost halved, and the time is shorter. It is lighter, has stronger defense, is not afraid of being cut off, and is more convenient for daily maintenance. The only disadvantage is that After the fabric surface is severely damaged, it must be riveted again.”

The "severe damage" here means that there is no way to sew it together. Otherwise, even if the cloth is cut into a mop-like shape, it can still be sewn and mended.

Ju Ming got off his horse, and two administrative officials and a group of magic officers came to greet him.

Several pieces of ordnance that have been improved through repeated experiments are placed on the table in the open space.

Peng Xiu quickly said: "Your Highness, this armor has been verified repeatedly. You can wrap both the Zha armor and the cloth armor on the killed fat pig, and then use a knife to chop and spear to compare carefully."

Cloth armor, with a layer of coat on the outside and large armor pieces riveted on the inside.

The defensive power is stronger than that of Zha Jia, and its weight is lighter than that of Zha Jia. It is warmer to wear than Zha Jia, and its production cost is much lower than that of Zha Jia.

But there is a very big disadvantage. When the government is corrupt, it is easier than Zhajia to cut corners without being discovered!

In addition, it is not convenient to make this thing into heavy armor. It is best to make it into light armor and medium armor.

Last year when he was replacing his armor with larger nails, Ju Ming thought about making cloth-faced armor. As long as the smelting level is sufficient, cloth armor is the first choice for explosive soldiers, which can truly achieve high quality, low price, and large quantities.

After cotton is produced in large quantities, of course, cotton armor can also be made, but the cost of cotton armor is much higher.

Ju Ming had a set of cloth-faced armor worn on wooden stakes in the school grounds, and ordered several guards to shoot arrows.

A total of more than thirty arrows were shot, and most of them were deflected or hung on the cloth. The defense was indeed very strong.

Ju Ming looked at another weapon on the table - Thunderbolt!

Historically, the earliest records of similar weapons appeared in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province in the late Jin Shizong period. A hunter named Li Tie stuffed gunpowder into a clay pot and installed a fuse. He alerted the foxes through the sound of explosions and drove the foxes into a net before arresting them.

On this basis, the Jin people invented a metal bomb called the "Iron Artillery". The Southern Song Dynasty also quickly learned it and changed its name to "Zhentian Lei".

When the Mongolian army attacked Kaifeng, the Jin soldiers used thunderbolts, which for a time made the Mongolian soldiers dare not approach the city wall.

After destroying the Jin Kingdom, the Mongols also learned to make bombs.

By the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, bombs had been used in various ways, and there were even records of the use of landmines in the Battle of Jingnan.

This ordnance manufacturing officer named Peng Xiu held a spherical bomb in his hands. He twisted it hard and easily decomposed it into two bowl-shaped structures. The gunpowder inside is wrapped and will not fall apart easily.

Ju Ming took a closer look and saw that wedge grooves and buckles were made at the joint, which could be opened or closed quickly. "It is made entirely of pig iron and the cost is not very high," Peng Xiu explained. "Including gunpowder, this thunderbolt weighs four kilograms and three taels."

Ju Ming said: "How to throw this? It's too heavy!"

Peng Xiu said: "Throw it down when you are defending the city. Or use a cannon cart to throw it out. A cannon weighing several kilograms can be thrown out with a small flat cannon (returning cannon). This small and light cannon The flat artillery can be installed on warships, placed on city walls, and can also be pulled by mules to accompany the army in field battles."

okay.

Ju Ming provided the idea for making Zhentian Lei, but I'm afraid he didn't explain it clearly.

His plan was to make grenades and then train grenadiers.

However, military workers like Peng Xiu made bombs weighing four or five kilograms, which were specially used to defend the city or be thrown by catapults.

Ju Ming felt that this was a good idea and could be used to increase the firepower of the triple formation.

At that time, the Jin cavalry rushed to the 120th step and threw bombs with catapults. When you rush to a hundred steps, fire another volley with your musket. Then use tiger crouching cannons and wooden cannons to shoot shotgun shells, in conjunction with bows and arrows and crossbows. Muskets, bows, and crossbows can all be fired twice.

The whole process involves more than six levels of long-range firepower, and with proficiency it can even reach eight to ten levels of firepower. If you can still rush to the front of the car formation in this way, it can only be said that Jin Bing is blessed by gods.

Ju Ming ordered: "You can keep this kind of sky-shaking thunder and make some lighter ones. It is best to control it within three kilograms."

"Yes!" Peng Xiu accepted the order.

Ju Ming went to inspect the gunpowder factory again. The reason why it was placed in the suburbs was that he was afraid of a big explosion one day.

At the beginning, the Zhu family and his son raised their troops in Hanzhong, which happened to be the most important saltpeter producing area in northern China.

Now, the Zhu family and his son have temporarily settled in Kaifeng, and the counties in Kaifeng Prefecture happen to be the top saltpeter producing areas in China!

If there is no shortage of saltpeter, there will naturally be no shortage of gunpowder.

What really matters is to strictly manage the gunpowder production process, otherwise the gunpowder formula will become a decoration.

During the Opium War, Qing generals in different places used completely different gunpowder ratios. The fundamental reason was that corners were cut in the gunpowder production.

For example, nitrate was qualified if it was repeatedly purified three times using local methods, while craftsmen in the Qing Dynasty often only purified it once or twice.

Responsible Qing generals must estimate the quality of the raw material saltpeter they obtain based on the actual power of the gunpowder in their hands, and then ask their craftsmen to adjust the proportion of saltpeter in the gunpowder accordingly (often by increasing the percentage of saltpeter).

How fucking tiring it must be to fight like this!

After an inspection at the gunpowder factory, Ju Ming felt very satisfied. Considering that cutting corners would cost you your life, the craftsmen were extremely serious and responsible.

He asked the Ordnance Experimental Factory to send people to Cizhou and Xuzhou respectively to bring them the production methods of cloth armor and thunder.

Now that the armor rate of the entire army is extremely high, there is no rush for cloth-faced armor, but Zhentian Lei must be made quickly.

The outer casing of this thing is cast from pig iron, and it doesn't matter the quality of the steel, so it can be mass-produced quickly and cheaply.

After it was built, the thunder produced by Cizhou was shipped to Zhang Guangdao nearby.

The Zhentian Lei produced in Xuzhou was shipped to Haizhou for Li Bao, Zhe Yanzhi, Yelu Yujian and others. In fact, they need Zhentian Lei the most, because they don't have many troops across the sea, but they may face a large-scale attack by Jin soldiers at any time.

Li Bao and Mr. Li were naturally the first to obtain new weapons.

Wanyan Zongwang's 10,000 elite troops were still on their way to Banghai Road when Li Bao obtained the first batch of 800 sky-shaking thunders, which were transported along with the military rations.

"How to use this thing?" Li Bao was holding a bomb weighing four kilograms, a little doubtful of the true power of this thing.

The technician who followed the bomb smiled and said, "Mr. Li, you can let someone try it."

Outside Haibin County.

Many straw men were erected in a wasteland, with Thunderbolt placed in the center.

Li Bao originally stood more than ten steps away, but the technician reminded him: "Mr. Li needs to retreat a little further."

"How far back?" Li Bao asked.

The man said: "It's better to take another twenty steps back to prevent broken pieces of iron from flying towards us."

Brothers including Damingzhen and Damingyi, who surrendered to the city, also came with their own soldiers to watch the excitement.

I saw a soldier lighting the fuse, running quickly to a large pit dug a few meters away, and then jumped into the pit to avoid it.

"boom!"

A huge roar sounded, which was really deafening.

As the smoke gradually dissipated, Li Bao approached to check in person. Within a radius of one and a half meters, all the straw men were knocked down and shattered. Within a radius of three meters, the straw men were shaken and twisted, and many fell down.

There were pieces of blown pig iron everywhere in a radius of more than ten meters or even further.

This amount of gunpowder is really packed!

The record in "History of the Jin Dynasty" is even more exaggerated: "When gunpowder broke out, the sound was like thunder, and the heat reached more than half an acre. Both human and cowhide were shattered without leaving a trace, and armor and iron were all transparent..."

Da Mingyi looked at the explosion scene and was glad that he had voted for Da Ming. Otherwise, what would he do if he encountered this thing?

He turned to look at Da Mingzhen and found that his brother had stood there blankly, staring at the scorched earth on the ground.

"We must win, Ming Dynasty must win!" Daming Yi was so excited that he shouted suddenly, and the surrounding soldiers also shouted loudly.

The Thunderbolt has not been actually used on the battlefield, but it has already boosted the morale of the Ming Dynasty soldiers!

(End of this chapter)