serious man in the red chamber

Chapter 492 Ceremony [-]

Red lanterns were hung on the streets, and red satin was tied on the trees. The entire capital became a sea of ​​red.
  Outside the Shuntian government office, a group of Su Kun was singing in the hall.

Under the stage, the huge square was filled with people watching the show.
  At this time, stages were set up in the squares outside every government office in the capital, and hall meetings were held.

Jia Hu issued an order to have fun with the people and invited the whole city to watch the play, which plunged the ancient capital into a carnival that was more lively than the Chinese New Year.

Unlike the festive bustle of the capital, the Imperial Academy was deserted, even a little depressing!

In the same simple wing room, the officials of the Royal Academy came, but they all stood there silently, no one said a word.

Vice-dean Xu Deming hurriedly walked back and forth in the room. When he reached the big case, he suddenly stopped, hit the case with his palm, and said loudly: "Why haven't you come yet? Send someone else!"

Wang Hongcheng continued: "This kind of thing can't be rushed, we can only wait!"

Xu Deming glanced at him, wondering why he didn't understand this truth, but the entire Imperial Academy was forced into a corner.

The bad guys at the Ordnance Bureau made qualified steel last night. His Majesty the Emperor was delighted. He not only issued a decree to reward the Ordnance Bureau, but also ordered people to deliver the steel to the Royal Academy overnight. Although he didn't say a word, it was It means everyone understands it.

Today is the birthday of His Majesty the Emperor. If they cannot present a needle gun at the Longevity Ceremony, how can they have the face to ask for scientific research funding from His Majesty the Emperor? You must know that the annual funding allocated by the royal family to the Royal Academy is as high as [-] million imperial silver coins. In more than three years, they spent more than [-] million from the royal family.

In the past, the Ordnance Bureau was in charge, but now all the pressure falls on the Royal Academy.

A pinfire gun, as the name suggests, is a rifle that fires bullets with a firing pin. After the trigger is pulled, the long rod-shaped firing pin on the gun pierces the paper cartridge case, strikes the primer, ignites the propellant, and ejects the projectile.

According to the instructions of His Majesty the Emperor, combined with the sketches of the Ordnance Bureau, the Royal Academy overcame all the technical difficulties in less than two years and successively produced flash caps, detonating charges, firing pins, firing pin barrels and firing pin wrenches. , in order to ensure air tightness, they also made a firing pin barrel that can rotate left and right.

Just when everyone thought that the needle gun could be successfully developed, reality gave them a big setback. Their barrels were unqualified. Under the strong air pressure, the barrels of the old breech-loading guns simply could not withstand it.

This delay lasted nearly a year!

There is no revolution without machine tools. Machine tools have appeared thousands of years ago and are used to process various tools.

The earliest lathes that appeared in human beings were very simple. They tied a rope to a branch, fixed the slats to the trunk, and used the toughness of the branches to drive the rotation. They used sharp objects such as stone flakes or shells as tools to cut wood and other objects.

The Ordnance Bureau's first barrel boring machine was driven by a water wheel. Until the advent of the steam engine, the machine tool began to be driven by a steam engine through a crankshaft, which greatly improved efficiency.

In the second year of the Empire, the teachers and students of the Royal Academy successfully made the first thread cutting lathe. It had a screw rod and a polished rod, a sliding tool holder and a guide rail, and could turn threads with different pitches. Since then, the Royal Academy has continued to improve the lathe, replacing the triangular iron rod frame with a solid cast iron bed, using an idler gear to exchange gear pairs, and replacing screws with different pitches to turn threads with different pitches.

This lathe provided standard accessories for the development of new steam engines and locomotives.

Immediately afterwards, the Imperial Academy developed gear hobbing machines, length measuring machines, horizontal milling machines and turret hexagonal lathes.

After three years of imperial rule, the Royal Academy finally developed a single-axis automatic lathe, and a three-axis automatic lathe years ago.

At the same time, a group of missionaries and teachers and students from the Royal Academy have been developing deep-hole drilling machines according to Jia Hu's orders.

The deep hole drilling machine is a high-precision, high-efficiency, and highly automated special machine tool for deep hole processing. It relies on gun drilling to achieve the machining accuracy and surface roughness that generally require drilling, expanding, and reaming processes through one continuous drilling process. Spend.

After more than three years of hard work, the first qualified deep hole drilling machine was finally made.

Of course, this deep hole drilling machine still has many shortcomings. Due to the depth of the hole and the long cutting route, the chips are not easily discharged and are prone to clogging, causing the drill bit to collapse.

In addition, since the processing is performed in a semi-closed state, the cutting condition of the tool cannot be directly observed, and the yield rate is very low. The chiming bell suddenly rang when it shouldn't!
  Everyone trembled.

Except for Xu Deming, all other eyes looked at the pointer.

It’s not time yet!
  Two hours have passed since the machine tool was debugged at Si Shichu. Two gun drills have broken and most of the steel has been wasted. Still, a qualified gun barrel has not been produced.

At this moment, a college clerk hurriedly ran in and whispered a few words in Xu Deming's ear.

Xu Deming was shocked: "What? Manager Ma is here?!"

Before he could finish his words, Ma Shun walked in sweating profusely. As soon as he saw Xu Deming raising his head to greet him, he said: "Oh, my Lord Xu. Why are you still here?! Where is the birthday gift from the Royal Academy? And After three or four celebrations, it’s time for you to present your birthday gift!”

Xu Deming listened, sweat seeped out from his forehead, and murmured: "Wait a minute, wait a minute."

Ma Shun was anxious: "We can't wait any longer!"

There was silence.

Ma Shun: "What's wrong?" He glanced at everyone.

Wang Hongcheng and other officials lowered their heads.

Ma Shun looked at Xu Deming again: "What happened?"

Xu Deming took out a handkerchief from his sleeve, wiped the sweat from his forehead tremblingly, and gritted his teeth to hold on.

At this time, a clerk rushed in like a gust of wind, panting: "It's done, it's done."

Ma Shun was startled and asked urgently: "What happened?"

The clerk replied excitedly: "The needle gun has been assembled and is being inspected!"

Xu Deming's eyes shone when he heard this, his cheeks flushed, and he said happily: "Let's go and have a look!" After that, he walked out quickly.

Wang Hongcheng and others swarmed out.

Ma Shun was startled for a moment, then walked out immediately.
  Joyful music came from Fengtian Hall
  In the main hall, the King of Tianzhu was performing a dance for Jia Hu and a group of ministers. He twisted his small waist to the beat of the music. The scene was really eye-catching.
  Amidst the cheerful tunes, the officials held jade cups in their hands and drank while enjoying the performance of the King of Tianzhu. Officials laughed from time to time.

Near the door of the main hall, William and others looked at the King of Tianzhu who was performing a dance with various emotions.

William picked up the wine glass and drank it all in one gulp, sighing in his heart. He really didn't want to see France and the Eastern Empire go to war, but he also understood that it was inevitable.

The hard work of Western countries and Jia Hu's toughness make it impossible for the two sides to coexist peacefully, at least not now. Only when they touch each other and everyone feels pain can they sit down and talk.

William had already met Jia Hu, and just as he expected, Jia Hu did not read the so-called credentials and returned it intact to him, saying bluntly that if he wanted Central Asia, he would come and get it on the battlefield.

Since there is no possibility of negotiation, there is no need to stay. They will leave tomorrow. Next time he will step into this ancient city as a winner. He does not believe that Jia Hu can defeat the entire Western world.

(End of this chapter)