Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

"Brother Wen Kai," although Taixi missionaries and colleagues in the Ministry of War have repeatedly slandered Dai Zi, but it is undeniable that he is still the best firearms expert in the Qing court. He will solve it. "Have you come up with any tricks for the sea retro rifle that Jiangsu presented to Yuqian last time?"

"Responding to my lord, I have already seen it, and I have figured out some differences." Looking at the man in front of him, Dai Ziyu, who was born under Prince Kang Jie's family, replied respectfully. "First, the reason why Haini hits far is because its barrel is long enough, which is almost similar to the bird's gun made by the imperial court; secondly, its armor-breaking potency is strong because its diameter is much larger than that of the bird's gun; third, The materials used for Haini rifles are very good, and the technique is also very clever. The officials inspected the [-] rifles presented by Jiangsu, and found that the length and diameter of the barrels of each rifle are all the same, and the inner diameter is also extremely smooth. It can be seen that his technique is superb."

"So, isn't it true that Hai Ni's gun-making skills are much better than those of the master craftsmen of Yu Zao?"

Manchurians frowned when they heard this. You must know that the manufacture of firearms in the Qing Dynasty was divided into three levels. It is used by the court; the second level is called flag making, which is in charge of special agencies of the Ministry of War, and the firearms produced are used by the Eight Banners of the Forbidden Brigade, Patrol Battalion, and Banner Camps in Zhili and other places; the last level is called construction, which is made by the required According to the style and limited amount provided by the Ministry of War, the governor made it in each province (city) and delivered it to the Eight Banners and Green Banner soldiers stationed in each province. According to the saying, even the imperial construction is scum, how can the local government deal with Zheng Jun's volleyball.

The Mandarin shook his head in disbelief: "Brother Wen Kai, are you exaggerating?"

"Even if you dare to lie to your lord, you don't dare to lie to your king." Dai Zi shook his head while pointing at the butt of his rifle. "For example, for this blunderbuss handle, at the beginning everyone thought that Hai Ni's change was not worth the loss, but after careful observation, I found that the sub-powder used by Hai Ni was more explosive than the sub-powder made by the imperial court, and using such a sub-powder medicine, you can’t use the original posture of holding the trigger with your hand, you have to hold it on your shoulder.” Dai Zi tried to demonstrate. "In this way, the eyes can still see the target clearly through the rear sight, and naturally the shooting will be more accurate. Not to mention the spear stabbing, but this self-generating gun machine is even more exquisite, allowing the gunner to shoot in the rain without fear, and the rifle's The only downside is that it is a bit heavier, and it must not be used by well-trained soldiers."

Hearing that Dai Zi boasted that the rifle was like a flower, the Mandarin was a little dissatisfied but still held back, and after thinking about it, he asked again: "If the imperial court plans to imitate it, Brother Wen Kai thinks that the Hall of Mental Cultivation will be built as an office?" Can the craftsmen of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of War imitate it?"

"That is to say, the self-generating gun machine is a bit more troublesome to manufacture, and the others are relatively simple. It is just that all the gun barrels, diameters, and sizes are the same as the Sea Inverse, and the inner diameter is polished so smooth that there are no burrs. Dai Zi never imagined that Zheng Jun actually used a hydraulic machine to complete a series of processes such as cutting the gun tube, drilling the inner diameter, and grinding the inner wall, so it is understandable for the misjudgment to occur. "Even if you find such a big job, you can finish one or two rifles like this in a month, and it can't be faster."

This Mandarin is quite shrewd and capable. He knows about how many master craftsmen there are in the gun department and the military department of the Hall of Mental Cultivation Office, so he did the math and found that according to Dai Zi's calculation, the annual output of these master craftsmen is [-]%. It is not enough to equip a firearms battalion, and suddenly I feel a little anxious: "Brother Wen Kai, did he make a mistake? If it is really produced at this speed, how did Haini get so many rifles?"

"The lower officials have checked. Twenty-five years ago in Kangxi, Haini still used the deer guns that were used in Haicheng. It was not until this time that the troops were dispatched to Sunan that they were replaced with this kind of rifles." Dai Zi still investigated carefully. Fan's. "It can be seen that it took quite a long time for Hai Ni to equip such a sharp weapon."

The Mandarin was silent. He believed that Dai Zi would not lie easily on this issue, so he finally accepted the statement that the production of rifles was difficult. However, if he could accept it, it did not mean that Kangxi would also agree. As the decision maker of the first empire in East Asia, Kangxi will definitely not care about the "small problems" of production speed, so as long as Kangxi talks about the need for equipment at that time, it is up to him to share the worries of the "Sage King" with such life-threatening issues, so the mandarin's face is extremely ugly.

"That's the case with the rifle for the time being. Let's listen to the court's decision. In addition." Since there is no solution, the Mandarin changed the subject and stopped mentioning it. "That small Haini cannon, how do you see it?" Speaking of which, a light cannon weighing several hundred kilograms is actually not very important in front of the Qing army, not to mention that the Zheng army had already killed all three cannons before Kunshan fell. The guns, axles, wheels, and gun lugs were all damaged, but since it was a victory, the damaged artillery was sent to Beijing together with the synchronous guns, which is why the Mandarin is now asking such a question. "Is it possible to imitate it?"

"It is better to use copper than iron to make cannons, and this is also recognized by the Taixi missionaries." Dai Zi answered Master Ha's question in a tone of bewilderment. "But if Jiangsu Luying is right, these small cannons have been fighting for two hours before they were blown up by Haini themselves. They haven't been blown up for such a long time. Apart from reducing the use of medicine, they can only use this The steel cannon is not the iron cannon to explain, but the officials checked it carefully, and it is obviously the iron cannon." Speaking of which, Dai Zi didn't have a metallographic detector in his hand, so naturally he couldn't find out the mystery of the central cooling method. "The lower official also asked several missionaries to look at it. There is only one theory, that is, there is indeed something wrong with this iron, but no one can tell what the problem is."

"Brother Wen Kai, how can I explain to the emperor what you said." The Manchu shook his head in dissatisfaction. He really had no choice but to deal with the firearms expert in front of him. "Forget it, forget it, since the explanation doesn't make sense, there's no need to explain it, just say that I saw it with Missionary Tessie, and this cannon has no great advantages other than being light."

The mandarin meant that it was fine if he wanted to cover up the past, but he never thought that his cover-up would make the Qing army miss it.

"My lord," seeing that the Mandarin was about to leave in a hurry after finishing his business, Dai Zi quit, and he immediately called to stop him. "I don't know if your lord has mentioned to the emperor about the 28-ring blunderbuss that was mentioned last time."

[Lianzhu Huobao] is Dai Zi's brainchild. He believes that as long as this weapon is widely equipped, not only Zhungeer's cavalry will be unable to resist, but even Zheng Jun's blunderbuss may not be his opponent.However, [Lianzhu Firebolt] has several major disadvantages. The first is that it is bulky. The second is that the operation of two sets of guns that are rigidly connected is complicated when they are linked together. The [-]th, heat conduction mode does not break through the ammunition that easily accumulates heat and ignites storage.And these shortcomings are the focus of the attacks of his peers who are jealous of Dai Zi. It can be said that Dai Zi's "Lianzhu Huobao" has not been dedicated yet and has been sentenced to death in Kangxi's mind.

Therefore, how did the Mandarin dare to tell Dai Ziming, so he could only falter: "The emperor is very happy to hear that you have developed such a sharp weapon, but now the court's priority is to manufacture soft-sailed clippers and accompanying cannons, so for the time being I don’t have time to watch your 【Lianzhu Firebolt】, brother Wen Kai should put it aside for now."

Dai Zi didn't understand Master Mandarin's subtext for a while, he just felt that this killer weapon was the only treasure in the world, Kangxi couldn't care about it now, and he would shine in the future, so he didn't ask, but he mentioned He asked a question: "My lord, I have checked the sub-medicine of Haini, and found that the sulfur and nitrate used by it are better than those used by the imperial court. This nitrate may be refined, but there is no sulfur produced in China, and it is only transported by North Korea. Those are probably not enough."

"The Haikou of the three provinces is blocked by the sea, and the barbarians in Thailand and the West are also worried about the advance of the sea, so they dare not transport gunpowder and sulfur imports." When it comes to the issue of sub-medicine, Mr. Ha also finds it difficult. You must know that with the current sulfur reserves of the Qing court, Zheng As long as the army continues to block the import channels, many firearms of the Qing army will become scrap copper and rotten iron. "Yes, I will hand over this matter to the emperor, and maybe I can solve part of it from Eluoyi and Annan Beihe Zheng."

What the Mandarin said is correct. After the Qing court drove away the Zheng army who came to the land and wiped out the Jiangxi rebel army who proclaimed the emperor, except for the three provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hunan who continued to pursue and suppress the scattered anti-Qing armed forces, most of the other The order in the region has been restored, and the Qing court, which claims to have nothing to do with the world, has spent most of its energy on the soft sailing yard in Dagu except for a small amount of pensions and disaster relief.For this reason, the Qing government invested 50 taels of funds every year, and hundreds of craftsmen and dozens of Thai and Western missionaries were busy with it, not to mention other personnel who collected wood for the shipyard and took care of it.

After nearly two years of construction, the Zhigu Shipyard has built two large inner bays and four relatively small inner bays, which is enough to start construction of six soft sailing boats of more than [-] materials at the same time. Fatty's method is to create a sea force that can be hostile and overwhelm Zheng Jun.

However, some things cannot violate the laws of nature. The Thai and Western missionaries without any experience in shipbuilding just started to produce two-masted or even three-masted plywood ships according to the script and a few line drawings. How could it be easy to succeed? You must know Mingzheng’s shipyard It took nearly ten years to develop from only producing small sloops to building military galleons.

In this way, the Dagu shipyard that completed the civil work was full of some problems, the defective semi-finished products that needed adjustment, and the Han craftsmen who were directed to turn their heads complained one by one. However, under the supervision of Qing court officials, there were Dare to be angry but dare not speak out, naturally there was a situation of passive sabotage, but for Zhigu Shipyard, this was just a pain in the development, but the Qing court never imagined that they had no time to recover from the consequences of the pain.