From the exercise, Zhu Cihong felt that the shooting speed of the musket was too slow, so he thought of ordering gunpowder in a paper tube, and went to the research institute of the War Bureau to discuss with Tang Ruowang and Sun Heding.

John Tang was the supervisor of the Qin Heavenly Prison and the head of Catholicism, and he was very busy in normal times, and he had very little time in the War Bureau.

Zhu Cihong also understands that foreigners are unreliable after all, even if they change dynasties, they will not have much impact on them, and history has proved this.

As a Ming man, Sun Heding was different, he soaked in the research institute every day and began to imitate and improve the latest flintlock pistol.

Seeing Zhu Cihong coming, after Sun Heding finished saluting, he took out a musket from a box, handed it to Zhu Cihong, and said with a smile: "Your Highness, this is the new flintlock pistol I imitated. ”

After Zhu Cihong took it, this gun was slightly smaller than the flintlock pistol used by the soldiers of the Yongwei Battalion, about one meter and three meters long, eight or nine pounds heavy, and it was much more complicated than the previous flintlock pistol in terms of ignition structure, but after trying to buckle the machine, I found that it was much less labor-saving.

It seems that after the invention of the tunnel pistol, Europe has been improving its function, which is why Europe can lead the world in modern times, and the sentence that science and technology are the primary productive forces is true in any era.

"Your Highness, look at this again!" Sun Heding said as he held a primitive pistol-style musket more than forty centimeters long from a drawer.

"It's a revolver!" Zhu Cihong was shocked, he didn't expect Sun Heding to actually touch this thing!

"Your Highness, do you know this rotating musket?" Sun Heding was also stunned and shocked.

Zhu Cihong's eyes widened and said, "Mr. Sun, you won't say that you invented this thing, right?" ”

Sun Heding waved his hand and said, "Your Highness, this thing is naturally not invented by me, this is what Father Tang purchased from the Bugarao Cannon Foundry, this kind of musket can be loaded with four rounds at a time, the range is about thirty steps, it can be fired continuously, and it can be used regardless of wind or rain, which is very convenient." ”

Zhu Cihong was taken aback, thinking that he had missed an unknown historical secret.

Zhu Cihong took this thing and observed it carefully, this so-called revolver musket should be the ancestor of the later revolver.

However, after finding a place to test shoot a few times, he soon discovered a lot of shortcomings. This thing is useless, the structure is too complicated, and the most important thing is that after the bullets are gone, it is very troublesome to reload.

Zhu Cihong said: "It can be used for self-defense of officers and artillery, and it is not suitable for large-scale equipment of the whole army, it would be good if it could be improved." ”

Sun Heding also nodded, he had a deep study of firearms, and naturally saw a lot of shortcomings.

Zhu Cihong described the approximate performance of the revolver in later generations to Sun Heding, and asked him to study it in this way, maybe he could really make a revolver?

Zhu Cihong told Sun Heding about the idea of ordering gunpowder with rifled guns and paper tubes, although he was a traverser, he didn't know the specific production method, so he could only tell Sun Heding the idea and let him, a professional, study and experiment.

Sun Heding was extremely surprised by Zhu Cihong's idea, and he was surprised again and again, and he was very interested.

Sun Heding said: "Your Highness, the paper tube gunpowder you said is a bit similar to granular gunpowder, much more powerful than powdered sharp powder, and it is easy to store and transport. ”

Although Zhu Cihong was shocked by the strength of the Qi family's firearms, he still explained to Sun Heding the carton of gunpowder. This is a major invention in the history of the musket, which is to wrap a certain proportion of gunpowder with lead bullet in a long paper tube.

When filling gunpowder, you only need to bite the paper tube open, pour some gunpowder into the fire door, and stuff all the remaining gunpowder and lead bullets into the gun, and you can also stuff a piece of deerskin to ensure the tightness of the filling.

The cartridge is filled with gunpowder, which not only improves the shooting power, but also reduces the gunpowder filling steps and accelerates the firing frequency.

In the previous Ming army, there were actually similar customizations, such as in the Qi family's army, the bird gun carried two bags on his back, one was a bamboo tube containing a certain amount of gunpowder, and the other bag was a lead bullet.

The practice of the Qi family army has been far ahead of other armies in the use of firearms, but unfortunately it has not been popularized in the Ming army.

The paper tube fixed gunpowder is equivalent to Qi Jiajun's bamboo tube quantitative gunpowder, which is still a lot more advanced, although the bamboo tube is still separate from the lead bullet, and there is an additional step of loading, and the bamboo tube cannot be directly stuffed into the gun tube, so there is no paper tube fixed gunpowder is easy to use.

After listening to Zhu Cihong's explanation, Sun Heding also greatly admired him, these technologies seem to be very simple, but if you think about it carefully, they have great significance, and they play a very important role in the improvement and development of the performance of firearms.

Sun Heding sighed in his heart: "It seems that this young crown prince also has a deep study of firearms, and his attainments are by no means inferior to his own, it is really comfortable to be able to work under such a knowledgeable person!" ”

For Sun Heding's imitation of a new type of flintlock pistol, Zhu Cihong rewarded him with 1,000 taels of silver, and issued an edict informing all craftsmen: as long as someone invents or improves a firearm, and the effect is not small, all will be rewarded, as little as 100 taels of silver, and as much as 10,000 taels of silver.

If there is a major invention or improvement, regardless of birth, you can add an official to the knight's house.

Stimulated by this round of rewards, the craftsmen of the War Bureau are more serious in their work, and they will study and study various firearms in their free time on weekdays.

After leaving the War Bureau, Zhu Cihong also visited the Anmin Factory. Since Zhu Cihong now plans to use granular gunpowder and paper tubes to order gunpowder, and even make improvised grenades, the amount of gunpowder required is also increasing.

As the most important gunpowder depot in the Ming Dynasty, Anmin Factory has a major stake in it, affecting the combat effectiveness of the Yongwei Battalion, and he has to pay attention to it. After Anmin Factory repeatedly asked for safety, Zhu Cihong left with confidence.

Zhu Cihong inspected the cannon foundry again, and he was surprised to find that the quality of these guns was good, and whether they were cast now or before, there were very few explosions.

Later, he learned that all kinds of artillery in the Ming Dynasty had design drawings, and there were strict rulers to determine the length of the cannon and the thickness of the tube. It is difficult for the craftsman supervisor to cut corners with shoddy quality, which ensures the quality of all kinds of cannons in the Ming Dynasty.

In particular, the Hongyi cannon cast by the Ming Dynasty was particularly well-made, using the boring and milling process, with good air tightness and high muzzle velocity, Spain and Portugal sometimes purchased artillery from the Ming Dynasty.

First buy from Portugal, and then imitate, the result is better than the previous one, these Ming craftsmen are talents!

Zhu Cihong's previous thinking has always stayed at the end of the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing army has become a professional household in the bombing of self-cast cannons, and it is not uncommon for newly cast cannons to explode as soon as they are fired.

"It should be that stupid boy Qianlong who burned all these artillery blueprints when he was working on the Siku Quanshu, so that Wanqing's artillery technology was rotten into slag." Zhu Cihong considered.

Zhu Cihong wanted to calibrate the accuracy of the artillery through some methods, but he was not a professional in this area, except for knowing the situation in later generations, he didn't know anything about it, so he had to give up this plan.

After returning home, Zhu Cihong immediately allocated 100,000 taels of silver for the research of the institute and the manufacture of firearms, and Wu Zhong, the eunuch with the palm print of the War Bureau, was in charge. Regarding Wu Daban's character, Zhu Cihong is still clear, and for the time being, he will never dare to be greedy for his own silver.

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Note: When Qianlong compiled the Siku Quanshu, he destroyed the total number of books that were unfavorable to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which is estimated to be 13,600 volumes. A total of 150,000 books were burned, and more than 80,000 pieces of more than 170 types of plates were destroyed.

In addition to burning books, the Qing Dynasty also systematically destroyed Ming Dynasty archives. There are only more than 3,000 archives in the Ming Dynasty, mainly the archives of the military department of the Tianqi and Chongzhen dynasties, and a small number of official documents of the Hongwu, Yongle, Xuande, Chenghua, Zhengde, Jiajing, Longqing, Wanli and Taichang dynasties.

The remaining no less than 10 million Ming Dynasty archives were all destroyed, in addition to destroying books and archives, the Qing Dynasty also systematically tampered with the remaining books and archives.