The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 781
"Exactly!" Zhang Lvxiang stroked his palm, "Your Majesty is really a master of Gezhi, you can tell it right away!"

Zhu Linmei smiled and said: "This wooden support can also narrow the gap between the shell and the barrel, reduce the leakage of gunpowder during firing, and thus increase the shooting distance."

Zhang Lvxiang nodded vigorously, "It is true as your majesty said, the officer also chiseled two shallow grooves on the edge of the wooden support, and coated lard in the grooves to increase the airtightness and reduce the resistance of the cannon ejection.

"It's just that, because the shape of this cannonball is not smooth enough, and it is fired from a short cannon, it is slightly insufficient to shoot farther than ordinary cannonballs."

Zhu Linmei encouraged: "Don't worry, just improve slowly. The explosive bullet can be fired in a curved line, and the range is not a big problem. By the way, is this shell safe and reliable?"

Zhang Lvxiang looked very proud, "Return to Your Majesty, I have tried hundreds of times, and there is no problem. This new shell... ah, to ensure the stability of the flower shell, the first thing is that the shell body must be carefully drilled. This is a military weapon. It is a trivial matter considering the existing casting and boring methods. But the most important thing is the fuse."

As he spoke, he took out a metal tube as thick as a little finger, "Look, Your Majesty, the inside of this tube is a zigzag line, and there is a vent hole on the side. It is filled with newly made slow-burning gunpowder. By the way, this The gunpowder is prepared by the subordinate officials of the Ministry of Industry, Mr. Yao, and it seems to be a powder that has been ground with a resin, and the burning speed is extremely stable."

"Yao Langzhong? Yao Qisheng?" Zhu Linmi smiled and shook her head, "He is a talent in chemistry. But I asked him to try out chemical fertilizers, but he deserted to make gunpowder."

Zhang Lvxiang was taken aback. He wanted to help Master Yao to claim credit, but he didn't expect to harm him, so he quickly bowed his head and argued: "Your Majesty, this is a repeated pleading by a subordinate, but Master Yao refused, so..."

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, I don't blame him." Zhu Linmi took the cannonball fuze and looked at it carefully, only to find that the outermost hollow feather was just for the convenience of igniting, and the real igniting powder was in this lead tube.This design can not only ensure the burning speed, but also will not go out due to the high-speed flight of the shell.

The interior of the lead pipe is very finely processed, with tenons, vent holes, and sealing rings. With the addition of slow gunpowder, it is already a very complete fuze.

His confidence in Zhang Lvxiang's flowering ammunition increased greatly, and he threw the lead pipe back to the latter, waved to the open space in the distance and said, "Go, let me see by firing two cannonballs."

"Yes!"

When the cannon was dragged two miles southwest of the camp, Zhang Lvxiang looked at the barren hills in the distance, estimated the distance, cut off a section of the fuze with a dagger, screwed it into the shell, and then inserted the quill into the gunner.

The latter skillfully set up the gun carriage and reported the shooting figures.The loader ignites the fuse on the shell and quickly inserts it into the barrel.The igniter on the other side also cooperated tacitly and ignited the propellant almost at the same time.

With a roar, black smoke was sprayed from the muzzle, and the trees on the barren hills in the distance were immediately knocked down by the shells.Less than two seconds later, there was another loud noise like thunder in the barren mountain—the flower bomb exploded.

Zhu Linmi immediately drove her horse to the barren hill a mile and a half away to check, and saw a scorched circle in the bushes. Four or five small trees as thick as an arm were blown off in the middle, and flew more than a foot away. Thick stubble, branches and leaves scattered all over the place in a mess.

Although the thicker trees were not broken, large pieces of bark were scraped off, or black shrapnel was embedded in the trunk, reaching a depth of inches.

The range covered by this cannon was two and a half feet, and shrapnel were even found on trees four feet away.It is conceivable that if such a shell falls into the enemy's formation, what a bloody storm it will cause!
Zhu Linmi immediately turned her head to look at Zhang Lvxiang, and said seriously, "There are only three cannons delivered, which is really a little small."

……

In the south of Jinzhou City, the Qing army camp.

Hauge frowned and stared at the bowls and plates in front of him, a plate of pickled beans, a plate of kimchi, half a piece of salted fish, and two flatbreads. There is only half of the salted fish? Where did the other half go?!"

His guard officer hurriedly entered the account, cupped his hands and said carefully: "Return to the master, the dining room said that half of the dinner should be reserved, otherwise there will be no meat at night..."

Hauge stared wide-eyed. After a long time, he finally swallowed his breath, waved his hand and said, "Go down."

Since the Ming army came to Songshan, the price of grain in Liaodong has soared, and it is now more than ten times higher than at the beginning of the year!At any rate, there were fish on his dinner table, while the soldiers of the Qing army only had a catty of coarse wheat mixed with wild vegetables for food every day.

Not long ago, it even broke out that the official warehouses in Yizhou and Xingjing were strangely short, and more than 6 shi of grain was suddenly missing.There are also more or less cases of inaccuracies in other grain storage areas.

Afterwards, the Qing government had no choice but to requisition food and grass from the local area, but found that the food in each village had already been bought at high prices.The grain requisition officers searched various places in Liaodong several times, but in the end they only collected more than 1 shi of grain.

That is to say, according to the current ration ratio of soldiers, at most three months later, his army will drink the northwest wind.

He didn't know that all the grain in Liaodong flowed to the southeast coast, where it was exchanged for silver, and the grain was shipped to Phi Island.

Ruan Jin recently received orders from Songshan, and began to buy bacon, salted fish, kimchi, etc. at high prices, almost as long as they were edible, they would not refuse anyone.

In fact, before and after the Ming Dynasty, more than 100 million taels of silver were spent, which caused the price of grain in Liaodong to skyrocket, and it was hard to find a grain of rice.There are also many profiteers in Liaodong who saw that the price of grain continued to rise, and began to hoard it again, which further aggravated the grain shortage.Unscrupulous profiteers have always been one of the most destructive forces in society, regardless of Man and Han.

Zhu Linming was not worried that the money would flow into Hauge's hands.Now that Daming has blocked Jianlu from three sides, no matter how much money Hauge has in his pocket, it will be for nothing if he can't spend it.As for the north, after passing Heilongjiang, there is only snow and wind, and ghosts can be bought.

Hauge was thinking about how much to reduce the rations of the soldiers, so a guard entered the account and said: "Master, Mr. Jitai Sonomu of Darhan Banner is asking to see you. He has arrived twenty miles west of Jinzhou City."

Hauge couldn't help frowning, thinking, a few days ago there was news that Horqin was attacked by barbarians, at this time Wu Keshan's younger brother came, probably nothing good will happen.

He immediately ordered: "Prepare the horse, I'm going to meet Sonomu. Just let Wakda lead the [-] guards and don't disturb others."

"Whoo!"

At Shenshi, Hauge's guard of honor met Sonomu and his party more than ten miles west of Jinzhou.The latter was greatly surprised, and hastily got off his horse to salute, "I pay my respects to Jian Guo. How dare Lao Jian Guo come out to greet you, I am so terrified."

Hauge enthusiastically pulled him along, and asked casually, "Why did Jitai come in such a hurry?"

"Ah, Mr. Hui Jianguo." Sonomu hurriedly said, "Thousands of Nanming troops have ravaged Horqin, and several have been slaughtered. My brother Wang has less than a thousand people in his hands. I am afraid that I will not be able to resist, so I ordered Horqin cavalry Rescue."

(End of this chapter)