Early Ming Dynasty: Turning Clouds and Rains into New Learning Saints

Chapter 232 That's it?

Xu Da finished playing with Zhu Di, and Zhu Di finished playing with Lan Yu.

After they all played a round, they remembered that there was another inventor of a new type of musket that they had left out.

So, Zhu Di grinned at Zhang Yifan and said, "What is your brain made of? You can think of such a good musket?"

Zhang Yifan was too lazy to pay attention to him, and just asked a little strangely: "Why do you only have one flintlock gun? Logically speaking, if I group them into groups, they should not be very different from each other, right?"

As soon as Xu Da heard this, he took over the topic and replied: "You divided several groups into making them in one day. I sent the other two muskets to your Majesty's confidants."

Zhang Yifan was slightly stunned after hearing this.When he came back to his senses, he had to sigh, this Xu Da has indeed high political consciousness!

Zhu Di heard this and said happily: "Father will be very surprised when he sees it, I can guarantee it!"

Lan Yu usually doesn't talk much, but at this time, he also interjected and praised: "Yes, these new muskets are far superior to the original muskets in terms of firing rate, range and power. It can be said that this type of muskets Once the new muskets are equipped in large numbers in the army, there will be no need for archers!"

Having said this, he sighed with emotion: "I never thought that one day, archers would be eliminated from the army!"

After hearing this, Zhang Yifan chuckled and said in his heart: "I'm afraid you don't know that one day, the cavalry who are now like treasures will also be eliminated, right?"

When Xu Da heard their comments, he was also full of praise: "Future war considerations will definitely change with the equipment of this new musket. You must summarize this carefully, and you may be able to do it in the Ming army." No.1!"

When Zhu Di and Lan Yu heard this, their eyes suddenly shone, showing their ambition for the No. 1 in the Ming Dynasty's army!

You know, the Ming Dynasty was just founded, and the army was full of famous generals who fought in battles.It is not easy to defeat them.But if you really want to defeat them, then this achievement will be unparalleled.

Seeing them like this, Zhang Yifan gave them cold water and said: "Those who are not equipped so quickly must first solve the mass production of this new type of musket, that is, the I flintlock gun. I will go to the War Bureau. I should Keep giving out the rewards, and then see how to increase production!"

When Xu Da heard this, he made a decisive decision: "Yifan, look at what kind of craftsmen are suitable to be transferred to build this new type of musket. Just transfer them all. With more people, the output will increase even if it is not large!"

This is a simple and crude method that can be considered.

A few of them were talking when they suddenly saw someone coming in a hurry with joy.

When Zhang Yifan saw that the man was in charge of the war situation, he felt something in his heart and said with a smile: "Everyone, maybe the artillery will be ready too!"

When Xu Da and others heard this, they were overjoyed and quickly looked at the visitor. The urgency on his face was probably stronger than Zhang Yifan's desire to return to Nanjing to reunite with his wife and children as soon as possible.

As expected by Zhang Yifan, someone came to report: "His Royal Highness King Yan, the two princes, and the Marquis, the rapid-fire cannon has been built and is ready for test firing."

When Zhu Di heard this, he said impatiently: "Then what are you waiting for? Hurry up and bring it over for test firing!"

No matter who it was, they could hear his eagerness.

In fact, the craftsmen are also very anxious.Only if they pass the test launch will they be considered complete and can they lead the bounty.

After a while, I saw a horse-drawn carriage pulling a rapid-fire cannon.That's right, according to Zhang Yifan's design, two wheels were added.It can be pulled by a carriage and move with the army.

Behind the carriage is the artillery, which is the mother musket.Guns and ammunition were placed on the carriage.

The craftsmen became even more excited when they saw that in addition to King Yan, the Prince Consort and others were also there.As a result, mistakes were made several times during the process of unloading the artillery and starting operations.

Zhu Di originally wanted to rush them, but when he saw them like this, he had to hold back his restless heart and wait patiently with great perseverance.

After the preparations were completed, Zhang Yifan inspected it first and confirmed that it was indeed built according to his requirements.The most critical part, that is, the key part where the child gun fits into the mother gun, is also no problem.

That is, the child gun needs to be inserted head-down into the mother gun diagonally. After the loading is completed, there is a bolt at the tail to fix it, so that the air tightness can be effectively solved.

Of course, compared to the original historical Fran cannon, there is one more procedure to operate and it will be slightly slower.However, for this little speed, it is definitely worth the money in exchange for the airtightness.

After completing the inspection, Zhang Yifan returned to the observation position and signaled that the gun could be fired.

Turning around, he found that whether it was Zhu Di, Xu Da, or Lan Yu, they were all staring at him intently, but he was no longer in their eyes!

Seeing this situation, he couldn't help but shake his head, what a bunch of warriors!

"boom!"

After a sound, the iron bullet shot out, landed on the ground in the distance and began to bounce for a distance before stopping.

For those who have seen the barbarian cannon, it is obvious that this range is much shorter.But as far as shooting at a target is concerned, there is not much deviation.

On the rapid-fire cannon side, the craftsmen immediately got busy after firing.

It took two people to work together to remove the fired neutron gun. The other craftsman who had already loaded the neutron gun immediately loaded the neutron gun into the mother gun. One of the two people just assisted in loading.

The whole movement sounds slow, but it is still very fast when done.

"boom!"

There was another sound, and the artillery fired again.

Repeating this action, six loaded muskets were fired in just over a minute.

If it is temporary, the first completed musket will definitely have been loaded and can continue to fire artillery if it has this time.

The craftsmen stood with their hands down, looking expectantly at the Prince Consort, waiting for him to speak.

Although King Yan has the highest status, for this artillery, it still depends on the prince-in-law.

Zhang Yifan always paid attention to the issue of air tightness during their operation.Because there is a bolt fixed at the tail of the gun, there is no air tightness problem when firing.However, he still walked over and checked both the mother gun and the child gun, but found nothing special to say.Obviously, the premise of his reward was that the quality must pass the standard, so that these craftsmen did not rush to catch up with the progress.

Finally, Zhang Yifan nodded with satisfaction and said, "Okay!"

Upon hearing his words, not only the craftsmen were excited, but also Zhu Di, Xu Da and others walked over excitedly.He stretched out his hand to touch this and then that. If you didn’t know better, you would have thought that this rapid-fire cannon would transform into a beautiful woman.

Of course, at their level, they are probably immune to beautiful women.In their eyes, this is artillery, their dream lover.

Xu Da first said with emotion: "I have fought in wars all my life, and this is the first time I have seen a cannon firing faster than the firing speed. This is really a great experience!"

This rapid-fire cannon is indeed inferior to the bombardment cannon in terms of range and power, but it is worse than the artillery currently used by the Ming army.Of course, these are aside from the biggest advantage of this rapid-fire cannon.If you add this advantage, what else is there to say!
Zhang Yifan heard this and added: "This rapid-fire cannon can be divided into different models according to different combat needs, but anyway, the heavier the gun, the longer the range. In addition, it can also be loaded with shotguns, similar to the Tiger It's like a squatting gun, but its range is still limited and it can't kill very far."

When Xu Da heard this, he quickly spoke for the artillery: "Enough, enough, this is good enough!"

Zhang Yifan: "..."

Is this good enough?
Well, you are the only ones who regard this as a treasure and say that this is good enough.It's a pity that artillery can't be built in later generations. Otherwise, I would let you know why artillery is the god of war!

Zhu Di walked up to Zhang Yifan and said to him with a sincere look on his face: "Can I hug you? I promise, I won't use force!"

"Get lost!" After hearing this, Zhang Yifan refused without even thinking.

When Zhu Di heard this, he didn't care at all. He just laughed and said: "Yifan, you are so awesome! I'm so lucky that my eldest sister has charmed you! Otherwise, you would still be in Liujia Village!"

Zhang Yifan: "..."

The turning point of fate indeed started when meeting Zhu Di and Zhu Jingjing.But isn't there a saying that as long as you have the ability, you will eventually shine.

While he was thinking about it, he heard Zhu Di say to him again: "Looking back, I will recommend someone to you. I think his knowledge is also very great. Of course, his knowledge is not as practical as yours. You are the God of Wealth and Fortune of the Ming Dynasty!" "

"Who?" Zhang Yifan was a little surprised and asked.

When Zhu Di heard what he said, he smiled and said: "I don't want to tell you, but you have to believe in my vision. I was able to discover you in the first place, which is an example!"

After hearing this, Zhang Yifan wanted to ridicule him, Zhu Di was not happy that Jing Jing was dating him at first!If I really want to talk about vision, it is also Jing Jing’s vision!

But he thought about it and finally said nothing.

After a few people talked around the rapid-fire cannon for a while, they all accompanied Zhang Yifan to the war bureau to distribute rewards.

Seeing that the promise was fulfilled and they received a large stack of Ming Dynasty treasure money, the morale of all the craftsmen immediately exploded!

Later, Zhang Yifan offered a reward to see who could improve the craftsmanship of flintlock guns and rapid-fire cannons.This time, it was targeted at individuals, and the reward amount was also very high, ranging from one hundred to one thousand gold, depending on the impact of the improved technology.

In addition, he allocated a group of thirty craftsmen to try to start assembly line production.

A prerequisite for assembly line construction is that the accessories must be exactly the same, otherwise they cannot be assembled.

There are vernier calipers that can determine specifications, but at this time, they are all made by hand, so errors are inevitable.Zhang Yifan proposed the concept of lathe and let the craftsmen do it according to this idea.

The first rapid-fire gun that passed the inspection was tested and accepted. Peiping decided to send another team of elite escorts to Nanjing and present it to the emperor.

As for the people in Peiping, Xu Da agreed on the next steps after listening to Zhu Di and Lan Yu's verification results on Juehua Island.

Xu Da is still responsible for building the Great Wall, Lan Yu is responsible for the renovation of Juehua Island, and Zhu Di is responsible for the boat training of the land warfare division.Including how to get on and off the ship, land and take the ship in an orderly manner, etc.

As for Zhang Yifan, in addition to inspecting the progress of the military battle, he ran back to Tianjin, saying that he still had some ideas to do.

........................

What people in Nanjing and Peiping didn't know was that Zhu Yuanzhang actually knew what Peiping was doing.Especially after the last signal tower incident, he made it clear that he did not need to wait for the outcome of the incident to report, but to report any trends.

Therefore, Zhu Yuanzhang already knew about the flintlock muskets and rapid-fire cannons before they were sent to Nanjing.

However, just like Xu Da and others, Zhu Yuanzhang only knew how powerful these new muskets and artillery were after seeing the live firing of flintlock guns and rapid-fire cannons!
The famous founding generals watching here are all like Xu Da.In other words, Xu Da was so excited, let alone others.

To put it bluntly, the emergence of these two new types of artillery will inevitably change the situation of war, at least at the tactical level.

The two appointed commanders Fu Youde and Mu Ying, who were about to go on an expedition, immediately requested Emperor Hongwu to urgently build a batch of new artillery and new muskets for the western expedition against the Mongolian Yuan remnants in Yunnan.And he was very precise, saying that the remnants of the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty in Yunnan had huge and powerful troops like war elephants, which could not be defeated except by new muskets and artillery!

In fact, in the original history, Mu Ying solved the enemy's war elephant attack with three shots of the primitive musket.

Of course, this is because Meng Yuan's war elephants have not been trained with muskets.Otherwise, the primitive musket can only do limited damage to armored war elephants. The smoke and fire from the musket scare the elephants.

However, now that they have replaced the new muskets and artillery, even if the remaining Mongolian Yuan army conducts training on muskets, it will be useless.

Zhu Yuanzhang had a very keen intuition about military matters, and he could naturally judge whether the demands of Fu Youde and others were reasonable.

He immediately agreed to urgently make a batch for them to use.At the same time, he also became more determined about the changes in chieftain policy proposed by Zhang Yifan.This new type of muskets and artillery is where the confidence lies.

Correspondingly, for the inventor of this new type of musket and artillery, his eldest son-in-law Zhang Yifan, that is definitely a reward.

However, Zhang Yifan is already the Duke of Rongguo. Although he is a son-in-law, there is no possibility of being crowned king.In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang promoted Rong Guogong as a hereditary man and presented him with an iron certificate of alchemy, which is the so-called death-free gold medal.

However, what Zhu Yuanzhang never expected was that the imperial edict was turned back by Zhang Yifan.Zhu Yuanzhang was shocked when he saw the memorial sent back by Zhang Yifan with the imperial edict.

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(End of this chapter)