The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 406 Semi-finished products

The sky cleared up the next day. The first winter snow of the seventh year of Qiansheng came quickly and went away quickly. When the sun came out, only mud and water were left on the ground. Only in the dark places where the sun could not reach, a small amount of snow was still lingering.

Jia Huan called Lin Zhixiao over, handed him two prepared shopping lists, and said, "These are the gifts that Miss Lin and I prepared for the mansion. The colors are all written on them. You can buy according to the list, but don't mix up the accounts. I will return mine, and Miss Lin will return Miss Lin's."

"I understand!" Lin Zhixiao said solemnly, and his opinion of Jia Huan became higher in his heart. Because after observing for a period of time, he found that everyone in the Lin family trusted Jia Huan very much, and Miss Lin was even more obedient to Master Huan San. So if Jia Huan had any selfish thoughts, he could easily embezzle a large sum of money from the Lin family. But Jia Huan did not do so. All his accounts were clearly divided into public and private, and he paid for his own expenses out of his own pocket, which was really rare.

"Then go ahead and get it done within three days. We will set off back to Beijing on the 18th of this month. I hope the canal doesn't freeze so early this year, otherwise it will be troublesome." Jia Huan waved his hand.

Lin Zhixiao did not leave immediately, but hesitated to speak. Seeing this, Jia Huan asked, "Does Steward Lin have anything else to say?"

Lin Zhixiao asked cautiously, "Master Huan, would you reconsider moving Aunt Zhao's grave?"

Jia Huan shook his head firmly and said, "No need. I personally chose the place where Auntie is staying. It is surrounded by mountains and rivers, with pleasant scenery. It is a rare Feng Shui treasure land. There is no need to disturb her rest now."

Lin Zhixiao couldn't help but look embarrassed. Jia Huan said calmly, "I know this is the task assigned to you by the old lady and the master. You are worried that you won't be able to explain to them after returning home if you don't do it well. Don't worry, I will explain this matter to the old lady and the master in person, and I won't let you get blamed."

Seeing Jia Huan's firm attitude, Lin Zhixiao knew that he could not change the other party's mind, so he gave up, bowed and walked out.

After Jia Huan sent Lin Zhixiao away, he changed into traveling clothes with the help of Ping'er, went to say hello to Lin Daiyu, and then took Shi Tou and others on horseback out of Yangzhou City and headed straight for the camp of Yangzhou Wei.

Generally, the camps of local garrisons were not set up in the city. After all, the space in the city was limited, and there was no place for the army to conduct routine training. Moreover, the officers and soldiers of the garrison all had families with them. Therefore, each garrison had a special garrison, and the surrounding fields were also allocated to the officers and soldiers of the garrison for cultivation, allowing them to be self-sufficient.

The garrison of Yangzhou Guard was five miles north of Yangzhou City. If you rode a horse, it would take only an incense stick of time to get there.

Jia Huan and his companions left Yangzhou from the north gate and headed north along the muddy official road. When they turned a hill, they saw two horses tied to the side of the road. Shitou recognized one of the horses as Tiehu's mount and asked curiously, "Hey, isn't this Brother Hu's mount? Where did the person go?"

Jia Huan looked around and suddenly saw two people walking on the field ridges at the foot of the hill. However, due to the distance, he could not see their faces clearly, but the figure of one of them was undoubtedly Tiehu.

Shitou put his hands to his mouth and was about to shout, but was stopped by Jia Huan. He took out a monocular telescope from his arms, which was the one he had seized from Red Bearded Rawl. The barrel was made of copper and could be extended to adjust the focal length. It was very exquisite.

Jia Huan raised the telescope to his eyes and slowly adjusted the focus. The distant scenery was brought closer. He saw Tiehu climbing up an old plum tree at the bottom of the hillside. The pink early plum flowers on the tree were already blooming in the wind.

Jia Huan moved the angle slightly and saw a woman in a red cloak standing under the tree. She seemed to be talking to Tiehu on the tree. The woman had a slim figure, a proud bust and a pretty face. It was none other than Qin Hongyu.

Jia Huan's eyes lit up and he said to himself, "Wow, Hu Zi is really efficient. He has even picked wild flowers!"

Shitou became interested immediately after hearing this and said hurriedly, "Third Master, let me take a look too."

Jia Huan hesitated for a moment, but still handed the telescope to Shitou. The boy took it and looked at it with a wonderful expression. He said with a click of his tongue, "Oh my god, is this Brother Hu? If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never believe that Brother Hu is so reserved and coquettish. Hehe, what a pair of dogs and bitches."

Mu Ye and Jin Bao looked at each other, and the fire of gossip burned in their hearts. They rushed forward and said, "Master Xing, let us see what Master Tiger did?"

Shitou coughed and said, "I didn't do anything. There's nothing to see."

Mu Ye rolled his eyes and said, "Then why did Mr. Xing peek?"

"That's it!" Jin Bao muttered dissatisfiedly.

Jia Huan took the monocular telescope back from Shitou's hand, put it in his arms, smiled and said, "Let's go!" Then he rode away on his horse.

Shi Tou and others hurriedly followed, and soon they arrived outside the camp gate of Yangzhou Wei. The soldiers guarding the gate naturally recognized Jia Huan, and immediately opened the gate to let them in. They also enthusiastically led everyone's mounts to the stable to take care of them.

After Jia Huan entered the camp, he walked towards the weapons workshop with ease.

It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of the founding of the country, the management of weapons in the Jin Dynasty was extremely strict. Only the Armory Bureau under the Internal Supervision Bureau and the Military Equipment Bureau under the Ministry of War could forge weapons. The weapons in the army basically came from these two institutions. Later, the management was gradually relaxed. The local guards that could only simply repair weapons could also forge appropriate weapons according to their own needs. Therefore, the local guards of the Jin Dynasty basically had their own weapon workshops, and Yangzhou Guard was no exception.

Mandarin is obviously a person of action. Ever since Jia Huan asked her to make a flintlock rifle within a month that night, she plunged into the task headfirst. She lived and ate in the camp of Yangzhou Wei, and spent all day in the workshop tinkering with things. It has been more than half a month now. She is simply a workaholic.

Jia Huan came to visit her several times. Seeing that this foreign maid was covered in dirt and was soaked from swinging a sledgehammer in such a cold weather, Jia Huan was dumbfounded and naturally felt a little guilty. He kindly went up to her to ask about her well-being, but the foreign girl thought she was in the way and drove her out!

Jia Huan was not angry, but admired Mandarin's full dedication. There are countless people in this world, but most of them are mediocre, and only a few are smart. However, intelligence does not mean success. Those who can really succeed are often workaholics like Mandarin who can devote themselves wholeheartedly. Therefore, when Jia Huan saw Mandarin's state, he knew that the flintlock rifle would definitely be made. There was no escape, it was just a matter of time.

Let's get back to the point. Jia Huan had just arrived outside the weapon workshop of the guard post when he saw several craftsmen running out in a panic. Jia Huan had been here several times before, so he naturally recognized these craftsmen and asked curiously, "Why are you running?"

"Miss Man is going to test the gun. Hehe, Master Huan San, you know what I mean!" said a craftsman with a bandage on the corner of his eye with a smile.

Only then did Jia Huan notice that these craftsmen all had their eyes wrapped with bandages, either their left eye or their right eye, and he couldn't help but wonder.

"Hey, come back. Why are you running, you coward? I promise the barrel won't explode this time." Mandarin's voice came from inside, and when the craftsmen heard it, they ran away even faster and disappeared in a moment.

"This is too exaggerated, is it really that scary?" Jia Huan thought as he quickened his pace and walked into the gate. As a result, he bumped into Mandarin who was chasing him - bang!

"Ouch!" Both of them groaned, the only difference was that Jia Huan covered his forehead in pain, while Mandarin covered her mouth.

It turned out that Mandalin was nearly 1.8 meters tall, and Jia Huan was much shorter than her. His forehead was just below the former's nose. When they collided with each other, Mandalin was naturally more injured. "It hurts!" Mandalin squatted on the ground in pain, tears welling up in her eyes, and her expression was very painful.

Jia Huan squatted down hurriedly, rubbing his forehead, and asked with concern: "Let me take a look, where is the injury?"

Mu Ye and Jin Bao looked at each other. Shi Tou wanted to laugh but didn't dare to. He winked at Mu Jin and the others, then quietly left the door to avoid making the scene too awkward.

At this time, Mandalin finally recovered and released her hand covering her mouth, looking aggrieved. Jia Huan checked her and breathed a sigh of relief, "It's okay, just a little skin on my lip."

Mandalin couldn't help laughing when she saw the two clear front teeth marks on Jia Huan's forehead. She reached out and rubbed Jia Huan's forehead, and asked apologetically, "Does it hurt?"

Jia Huan shook his head and smiled, "It's okay. By the way, is the flintlock rifle ready?"

Mandarin puffed out her chest proudly, pulled out a pistol from the holster at her waist, pointed it forward, then twirled the gun around her index finger and put it back into the holster. Her movements were clean and quick, and she looked heroic, and it was obvious that she had practiced before.

Jia Huan said excitedly: "Bring it here for me to see."

Mandarin handed the pistol to Jia Huan, who took it and looked at it carefully. He saw that it was a single-barreled pistol with a wooden handle and a wrought iron barrel. It was much lighter than his own revolver-type double-barreled pistol. The key point was that this thing used flint impact to ignite, and no steel wheel and spring were needed. He only needed to pull up the spring-loaded hammer and pull the trigger to fire.

In this way, it is not only more convenient and faster, but also greatly reduces the difficulty and cost of production, and it is naturally more advantageous to popularize it. As far as the current technology is concerned, the flintlock rifle should be the most advanced firearm, and Jia Huan, as a top student majoring in archaeology in his previous life, naturally understands the great significance of this thing. If the army of the Jin Dynasty is equipped with flintlock rifles on a large scale, coupled with paper shell ammunition that can be quickly loaded, it will definitely be able to beat the Qing cavalry to the ground. By then, the Qing Dynasty will not be able to enter the pass, and it is another matter whether it can keep its current territory.

Seeing Jia Huan like it so much, Mandalin was very happy and felt that all the hard work over the past half month was worth it. She suggested, "Jia, do you want to try it?"

Of course we have to try. As the saying goes, whether it is a mule or a horse, we should take it out for a walk, right?
So Jia Huan skillfully loaded gunpowder into the barrel, poured some primer into the vent, and then pulled up the hammer with flint.

Mandarin blinked and asked, "Jia, have you ever used a flintlock rifle before?"

Jia Huan shook his head and smiled: "Although this is my first time using it, I understand the principles and will be able to use it at a glance."

As Jia Huan spoke, he raised his gun and aimed at the target ten meters away. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, Mandalin shouted, "Wait a minute."

Then he quickly took out a mask from the toolbox next to him and helped Jia Huan put it on. Then he said with relief: "Okay!"

Jia Huan suddenly felt something was wrong. The three craftsmen wearing eye patches instantly appeared in his mind. He seemed to understand something and coughed softly, "Mandalin, your gun... won't explode, right?"

Mandarin nodded seriously and said, "Yes, but after my repeated improvements, the chance of explosion is now very low."

"How low?"

"Oh, that's hard to say. We need to go through a lot of tests to get reliable data. But don't worry, the probability of it exploding within ten shots is less than half. It's best to clean the carbon deposits after ten shots, otherwise the possibility of explosion will increase significantly."

Jia Huan felt relieved after hearing this. The chance of the barrel exploding within ten shots was less than half, so he shouldn't be that unlucky. So he pulled the trigger boldly.
As the hammer fell, the flint, driven by the spring, hit the edge of the firing port heavily. The sparks successfully ignited the gunpowder. With a bang, the target ten meters away was hit.

"it is good!"

"Third Master, you have great marksmanship!" Shitou, Muye and others cheered in unison and gave him compliments.

Jia Huan reloaded the ammunition, pulled the hammer and pulled the trigger. As a result, the hammer flew out with a whoosh, and everyone was dumbfounded.

Jia Huan took a closer look and found that the spring was broken. Mandalin said in annoyance, "It's the same problem again. The spring is strong enough, but not tough enough."

Jia Huan frowned and said, "No matter how bad it is, it can't be this bad, right? It broke after using it twice?"

Mandarin shook her head and said, "I have fired this spring hundreds of times myself, and a few of them have broken before. The lifespan is about a hundred times."

Jia Huan heaved a sigh of relief and said, "That's more like it."

"Not even close. Our Europa's spring can fire more than a thousand times."

Jia Huan was surprised and said, "That's really far from the truth. Mandarin, do you know where the problem lies?"

Mandarin pondered and said, "It should be a problem with smelting technology. I don't really understand this."

"Could it be that the purity is not high enough?" Jia Huan still remembered that when he was in chemistry class, the teacher said that the toughness of iron depends on its purity. If the carbon impurity content is high, the iron will be more brittle. The less carbon impurities there are, the more flexible it will be.

Mandarin shrugged and said, "Maybe. It's also possible that something else was mixed in. Jia, I'm sorry, this is not my specialty."

Jia Huan smiled and said, "It's okay, you've done a good job. Metallurgy is a complex and profound subject. You can improve the spring slowly in the future."

If it is just used for self-defense, a service life of about a hundred times is enough, but if it is to be equipped on a large scale for the military, it will require careful consideration.

(End of this chapter)