The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 287

Although this is a trivial matter, Gu Yanwu has been active in enemy-occupied areas all year round, and is particularly sensitive to such matters, so he still reported it to His Royal Highness the Assistant Prince.

"Oh? Where is this person?"

"Return to Your Highness, this Gao Xiang was sent to Nanping to work as a coolie before."

Nanping is the seat of the government of Yanping Prefecture, and it is located in the center of Fujing. It is by no means an easy task to get the captives here.Zhu Linmi tapped the wooden table with her fingers, "It took such a lot of trouble to build the prisoner, there must be some secrets in it. Mr. Gu must let people find out its purpose as soon as possible."

"Your subordinate obeys orders." Gu Yanwu hurriedly said, "Jinyiwei North Town has set up some eyeliners in Zhili and Liaodong, and there will be news soon."

Afterwards, he told some information about the northern regions, Gu Yanwu bowed to leave, and Song Yingxing, who had been waiting outside for a long time, hurriedly followed Shi Lin into the palace study.

After seeing Zhu Linming, he saluted, and then hurriedly said: "His Royal Highness ordered the Military Weapons Bureau to speed up the production of hunting rifles more than half a month ago, and rushed to produce a batch of heavy artillery.

"Currently, 3 guns have been manufactured, and they are being handed over to General Yu in batches for inspection. But I didn't expect that it would take a lot of work to make the Mini. By the time of counting yesterday, there were only more than [-] guns. "

Song Yingxing explained the production process of the mini-bullets in detail, and Zhu Linmi realized that since there is no stamping equipment, it is indeed very troublesome to quickly manufacture bullets with very accurate diameters.

The current way of making Mini bombs is to pour molten lead water into the mold, take it out after cooling, and hand-polish it smooth by craftsmen, then drill holes in the bottom, and then put it into the cork.

As long as there is a slight error in any of these processes, the center of gravity of the bullet will be unstable or the caliber error will be too large.

In the past, there were only more than 200 rifled guns in the entire army, which could barely be supplied by hand polishing, but now there are more than [-] hunting rifles, and the supply of bullets has become a big problem.

Song Yingxing said again: "In addition, more than 4000% of the bullets are flawed in the production process. Not only is it a huge waste, but two craftsmen need to be accompanied by a supervisor. To make these [-] Miniature bullets, it has already cost nearly [-] yuan. [-] taels..."

A bullet costs one cent and three cents of silver! "High-precision" weapons are indeed not for the poor to play with.Zhu Linmi shook her head helplessly, "Let's build it like this for now. If there is really not enough miniature bullets on the battlefield, lead bullets wrapped in leather can make do.

"When I come back from the southwest, let's study the hydraulic stamping equipment carefully, and this problem can be solved."

"Yes." Song Yingxing had no choice but to cup his hands, "Students will also make the craftsmen master their skills as soon as possible and produce more finished products."

He paused, and then continued: "In addition, Wei Yuan has roughly compiled the standardization process of casting cannons into a book. The first batch of four nine-pound cannons cast according to this standard has been handed over to General Yu."

Zhu Linmei nodded in relief, casting cannons is a very important matter, especially for the navy.

Due to the large number of guns carried by Galen ships, a warship of about [-] tons needs nearly [-] cannons of various calibers.The entire navy needs at least one hundred forty-five guns just for the initial planning.

Moreover, these cannons had to be prepared in advance, otherwise, when the warship went into the sea, the sailors would have no cannons to use, which would be a joke.

Now that there is a standardized process for casting cannons, as long as you continue to invest money in it, you can continue to expand the production scale and ensure the supply of cannons.

"Oh, by the way, Your Highness, several Helan merchant ships unloaded more than 7 catties of copper ore at Yuegang a few days ago." Song Yingxing continued, "The Ministry of Industry is currently smelting."

In fact, Zhu Linmi has already been reported by the Ministry of Rites.The Dutch finally compromised and compensated Daming 5 taels of "medical expenses", sent another letter of apology, and promised not to attack merchant ships along the coast of Daming.Now the copper ore they traded has also arrived.

However, even if the Dutch did not attack merchant ships along the coast, they could not change the monopoly of Daming Shipping.

As long as it is more than a hundred miles offshore, it will still be dominated by the Dutch fleet.With the current communication capabilities, even if they sank a merchant ship in the open sea, it would be difficult for Daming to get news.

This is why Spain dare not approach the coast of Fujing for the time being.

Zhu Linmei nodded and said, "Tell Weiyuan that the matter of supervising the construction of heavy artillery must be paid close attention. Although copper is used, a large number of copper mines will arrive in the future."

Limited by the level of casting in this era, especially without Zhu Linmi's guidance, he was still not at ease letting Xu Erlu use iron to cast heavy cannons.

You must know that in a naval battle, as long as there is a bomb explosion, the entire warship may lose its combat effectiveness.

But in this way, the copper needed by the navy alone to cast cannons would exceed 40 jin.For such a large quantity, at the monopoly price of the Dutch, I am afraid that nearly one million taels of silver will be enough.

This is also an important reason why Zhu Linming is eager to win Guangdong and get in touch with Portugal and Spain.The Philippines, India and other places are major producers of copper, and when there are more supplies, sellers will compete to lower prices.

"Students take note."

When Song Yingxing took the order to leave, Zhu Linmi asked Shi Lin to find Zhang Jiayu and ordered him to mobilize four thousand dragon guards to prepare immediately and prepare corresponding logistics supplies.

With the fighting power of the Dragon Guards, even with only flintlocks, Zhu Linmi is confident that he can defeat Ding Kuichu with 4000 men.

But now there are more than 500 rifled guns installed, and the strength of the Dragon Guards has been greatly improved, so [-] troops are enough for the Western Expedition.

In addition to the remaining [-] Dragon Guards sitting in Fujing for emergency response, Zhu Linmi also arranged other tasks for them.

The next day, the court meeting, which had been suspended for a long time because the assistant king went south to Quanzhou, reopened again.

In front of the Wenhua Hall, Pang Tianshou read out two imperial decrees in public—of course, they were all written by Zhu Linmi, and the jade seal was used after passing the cabinet.

The first imperial decree was to denounce the traitor Ding Kuichu's eight major crimes of treason, killing the king, and not being called, and then ordered His Royal Highness the Assistant King of the dynasty to lead an army westward to Guangdong and Guangxi to crusade against rebellion.It was also announced that officials from Guangdong and Guangxi should greet the imperial army in the east, and those who violated it would be punished as rebels.

In fact, since Zhu Yu'ao's downfall, there have been courtiers who impeached Ding Kuichu, or asked the court to send troops to attack him.

But at the beginning of Zhu Linmi's administration, Fujing's hearts were fluctuating, while Ding Kuichu still controlled the land of Guangdong and Guangxi, with more than [-] troops, which was quite powerful.

In order to ensure the stability of Ming Dynasty, Zhu Linmi kept suppressing this matter, and all the memorials to impeach Ding Kuichu were kept by the cabinet.

At this time, the court meeting suddenly said that they would go west, but the officials were a little dazed.But they quickly reacted, and immediately fell to the ground, shouting, "I wish your Highness the victory!"

This Western Expedition is not only an act of rebellion, but also an act of restoring the country. No one in the entire court dared not express support.

(End of this chapter)