golden scales

Zhu Cihong went into the study as soon as he returned from the palace, and only after a long time did he call Tian Cunshan and said: "Send someone to She County, Anhui, and invite Mr. Bi Maokang to see me. I want to ask him about the flintlock. "Hearing the gun, Tian Cunshan didn't know which nerve was touched, so he cheered up and ran out quickly.

From the time of Chengzu, Daming used firearms systematically and developed firearm tactics, and the Shenji Battalion was established for this reason.However, when firearms were first born, they lagged behind traditional bows and arrows, bed crossbows, and thunderbolt cannons in every function, just like steam locomotives could not outperform horse-drawn carriages.Although there is a great man like Chengzu who can see the future trend, for most people, firearms are really unattractive.

Later on, Emperor Ming was powerful in Asia, and Zheng He made seven voyages to the West, making a good move, who would dare to seek bad luck from Daming?Even the Mongols are just looting from the frontier, and the idea of ​​going south to herd horses and swallowing mountains and rivers is something I dare not even dream about.

As the saying goes, although the world is safe, if you forget the battle, you will be in danger.After a hundred years of peace in the Ming Dynasty, when the arsenal was opened again, it was discovered that the firearms had fallen behind many small states.

First, in the 16th year of Zhengde, Wang Hung, then deputy envoy of Guangdong Haidao, led troops to recover Tuen Mun Island in Dongguan County (Note 1), which was occupied by the Portuguese, and defeated the Portuguese fleet, known in history as the "Tuen Mun Naval Battle".In this first war between China and the West, although Ming won the victory, its combat effectiveness was already weaker than that of the Portuguese who came from afar.

Especially in weapons.

Wang Hung obviously felt that the firing speed of the Franco cannon was extremely fast, far faster than the front loading used by the Ming army, so he sent the captured naval gun to Yanjing and asked the court to imitate it.

Objectively speaking, the measure of a country's advanced level should never be based on "what" is the standard.Although the Ming Dynasty did not invent rear-loading artillery, its productivity was still the strongest in the entire world.As long as it is inspired and motivated, the artillery made by Daming surpasses the Franco cannon in both quantity and quality.And in the Wanli Pingwa War, Li Rusong of Liaozhen used a large number of artillery and three-eyed guns to bombard famous Japanese generals of the Warring States Period in North Korea.

Although Li Rusong found that the Japanese iron cannon had already surpassed the matchlock gun of the Ming Dynasty, he did not pay special attention to the huge victory.Moreover, at that time, the Ming Dynasty created the bird blunderbuss based on the Franji, and later introduced the Lumi blunderbuss from the Lumi Kingdom (now Turkey), which were installed in the Shenji Ying.Therefore, there is not much investment in the flintlock project.

What's more, when Bi Maokang proposed to equip flintlock guns with the title of Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, it was already eight years after Chongzhen.At that time, Daming's family property was almost squandered, and "additional pie" was the main theme in the court. How could there be any extra money to change clothes for the Beijing camp?What's more, the Beijing camp is so decayed that even if it needs to be changed, at least [-]% of the investment will fall into private pockets.

Even if Zhu Cihong doesn't know much about military affairs, he still knows that lighters are more advanced than matchlocks, and future firearms will never be dragged by ropes.Judging by such a general trend, it is a sure thing to mount a flintlock gun.

There must be a priority in doing things. Although the manufacture of flintlock guns is the most important thing in building a new army, if you come up with firearms, the purpose of going out of the palace to prevent epidemics will become Sima Zhaozhi's heart.It was not a big problem to let Shen Tingyang go to the south to solicit sponsors earlier, but the gun factory should not start until the time is right.

Now that he has justifiably led the Beijing camp, and it is possible to go to Luoyang to Fujun to supervise the battle, the time can be regarded as partly ripe.To truly say that he is fully mature, he will only have to wait until he finds the most suitable base for development.In any case, now we can set up the team of the arsenal first.

Before Tian Cunshan ran to the door, His Royal Highness had already chased after him with the second sentence: "Get ready, I'm going to Anmin factory tomorrow."

Anmin Factory is the place where Emperor Chongzhen told the prince "absolutely not to go", as if it would explode at any time.

In fact, Huangming established the Gunpowder Bureau since the reign of Chengzu, and there have never been such frequent accidents as in the late Wanli period and even today.

As a business manager of later generations, Zhu Cihong is very aware of the lesions.

Lack of responsibility.

Ming people were no strangers to gunpowder.Since the Song and Yuan Dynasties, gunpowder has gone from Danke's secret room to the battlefield.By the time Taizu conquered the world, Mu Ying had matured the firearm tactics of firing guns in turns.By the time of Qi Jiguang, gunpowder had been granulated, and the formula was extremely close to the optimal ratio.The firearms equipped rate of Qi's army was almost [-]%, and there was no accident of gunpowder explosion.

It is precisely because of Wen Tian and Wu Xi in the late Wanli period that the chiefs of various yamen could only be officials but not work, and even used a shovel to dig up the agglomerated gunpowder. Isn't this courting death?

After Zhu Cihong let Liu Ruoyu's nephew take charge of the Anmin factory, there was no safety accident because of the short time.However, Zhu Cihong didn't bother to ask how that timid Liu Wei, who didn't even know how to read, was doing.This time he is going to inspect the Anmin factory, mainly to see how much the gunpowder factory's production capacity is. Every town needs [-] to [-] catties of gunpowder, and whether it can be produced.By the way, I also want to review Xiao Tugeng's musketeer training.

As the only unit not stationed in the East Palace, the Musketeers' training is every five days. Because it is mainly technical training, the assessment methods are also somewhat lacking, which makes Zhu Cihong feel uncertain.

The news of the crown prince's inspection of the Anmin factory spread quickly.

It's not that Tian Cunshan has a big mouth, but it's really not easy for the prince to go out.Although Zhu Cihong has removed the serving of sweets, snacks, drinking water and toilets, but according to the ancestral system, the ceremonial canopy, axes, knives, forks, swords and halberds... everything is indispensable, so unless you visit privately, you will never be able to hide it from others. .

Not to mention that this was Liu Ruoyu's errand, the prince suddenly asked Tian Cunshan to do it, which somehow made people think it was some kind of signal.

In fact, Zhu Cihong just ordered casually because Tian Cunshan happened to be by his side, and didn't think too much about it.

The prince may not think too much, but Liu Ruoyu dare not think about it.He already knew that the Military Judiciary Department was protected by the prince in certain financial issues, and he had secretly calculated their expenses, and found a black hole.The size of this black hole is definitely not something that Wu Changchun dared to swallow for himself, and the prince has absolutely no reason to cover up this military judge who was born in the army and horse.

The only explanation is that the crown prince raised a group of people in secret.

Most of them are the eyes and ears of Jinyi Weidong Factory.

Liu Ruoyu's heart tightened, but there was nothing unusual on his face.He quickly finished dealing with the matter at hand, returned to the dormitory, changed into casual clothes, and quietly left the East Palace Mansion among the chores in the backyard.

Coming out of the foreign residence, Liu Ruoyu rushed all the way to Anmin Factory.

Liu Wei used the 100 taels given by Liu Ruoyu to buy a three-entry house near Anminchang.Because everyone in Yanjing knew that Anmin Factory was a powder keg that could explode at any time, the nearby houses were very cheap, and they took them down for a total of only 30 taels of silver.

Living here can save a lot of commuting time every day, and take care of the factory more.Sometimes Liu Wei would go to check the Yegang, but anyone caught gambling and drinking in violation of the regulations would be severely punished.

When Liu Ruoyu arrived at his house, Liu Wei was about to have dinner, when he saw his uncle visiting in casual clothes, he was startled: "Uncle, you are here?" Is there an errand?"

Liu Ruoyu nodded: "Your Highness the Crown Prince will personally inspect Anmin Factory tomorrow, do you know?"

It turned out to be just this!

Hearing that His Royal Highness is going to come to Anmin Factory in person, Wei Lue is naturally a little excited, but compared to his uncle's previous thoughts of losing his errand, this is nothing.Liu Wei finally regained his composure, and said with a smile, "I thought it was a big deal, hey, if your Highness wants to come, come."

Liu Ruoyu sat in the main seat, and rolled his eyes over: "Why does Your Highness want to inspect Anmin Factory for no reason? Why did you ask Tian Cunshan to prepare instead of looking for me? It is likely that someone spoke ill of you behind your back, and the crown prince wants me to avoid suspicion." Nah!"

People are looking for troubles because they are smart. A dull person like Liu Wei never imagined that there are such twists and turns in it.Liu Wei was taken aback for a moment, and said weakly: "Uncle, my nephew did offend some people before." (To be continued.)