It has been two months since Fang Nan handed over the task of researching rockets to the Firearms Research Institute, and through the efforts of five people in the rocket project team of the Firearms Research Institute, a practical rocket has been developed, with a maximum range of 150 meters and an explosion power equivalent to at least five grenades exploding together.

Such a rocket is somewhat practical, Fang Nan did not go to Foshan to watch the rocket test launch in person, and directly asked the military department to send someone over to see if this rocket can be used in land or naval battles.

Since the People's Army occupied Huizhou Mansion, Fang Nan basically did not interfere in combat command, and the task of commanding the People's Army in battle was mainly entrusted to Wang Shengrong, He Yan and others.

Fang Nan just had such an idea as a newly researched weapon like a rocket, and then allocated funds to order the Firearms Research Institute to conduct research, and the rocket was researched, and then it was up to the army and navy to see if they needed equipment, and if they thought that the rocket could be used, the arsenal would start manufacturing rockets and send them to the army in batches.

It would be a waste if Fang Nan was not sure whether the rockets would be useful for the army and navy to fight and ordered the arsenal to be built.

Fang Nan's order was sent to the Ministry of War, and Hu Zhuang, the head of the Ministry of War, immediately transferred two people from the army and the navy and ordered these four people to go to the Foshan Firearms Research Institute to test the rockets.

Shi Shan and Xiao Hui of the Army, Jiang Deshui and Zhang Fa of the Navy, and four officers of the Navy took a special carriage at Guangzhou City Station and went to Foshan through the railroad road, and in less than half an hour, the carriage traveled 40 miles to Foshan.

The four officers came to the Firearms Research Institute to meet with the director Ye Liangchou, and after learning the intention of the four officers, Ye Liangchou took the four officers to the house where the rocket project team was located, and Duan Kun, the patriarch of the rocket project team, personally introduced the rockets to the four officers.

Knowing that a rocket is a firearm that can be fired with only a simple launcher, with a maximum range of 150 meters, and can also explode, the explosion is equivalent to at least five grenades exploding at the same time, and the four officers are interested in this firearm called "rockets".

Two army officers, Shi Shan and Xiao Hui, compared the rockets with the various firearms currently used by the army, the range of the rockets is not as good as that of muskets, but the most critical point is that the rockets can explode and cause more damage to the enemy.

Also firearms that can explode, rockets are best compared to hand grenades.

At present, there are two ways to use grenades in the People's Army, one is to throw them by hand in close combat, and grenadiers can generally throw them tens of meters away; One is to shoot a grenade out on a siege vehicle at a medium and close range, up to a distance of up to 50 meters.

Melee also says that grenades are bounced off siege trucks to attack the enemy on the city walls, and within this range, enemy archers and musketeers are able to launch a counterattack against the KPA fighters on the siege vehicles.

If the siege vehicle is 140 meters away from the city wall, and the enemy is attacked by rockets on the wall, the enemy's bow and arrow will not reach the range, and the musket can reach the range but has little power.

Thinking about it this way, Shi Shan and Xiao Hui both felt that the army could be equipped with a batch of rockets, which were mainly used during the siege of the city, and the role of rockets was not very great at other times.

Jiang Deshui and Zhang Fa, two naval officers, were also thinking about the use of rockets in naval warfare, and the two warships were more than 100 meters apart, so the rockets could be powerful at this time.

Compared with muskets and artillery, rockets have two advantages, one is that rockets are easy to use, there is only a simple launcher, rockets are launched directly to finish, and there is no need to continue to reload ammunition, the most critical place is that rockets can explode, as long as the rockets are fired into the enemy's warship, an explosion can kill and injure the enemy on the warship.

The navy does lack firearms that can explode, and the grenade catapult device used in siege vehicles has recently been added to the warship, but the distance of the grenade fired by the catapult device is too close, and the scattered shells and muskets fired by the enemy's artillery can cause great damage to their own side, and the range of rockets is up to 150 meters, which is much better than grenades.

The four officers who came to the firearms research institute all thought that rockets were a good firearm, and the next thing was to see the actual combat, and the rocket project team had a total of three rockets in stock, and two of them were transported to the experimental site.

Put a rocket on the improvised launcher, ignite, the rocket flies up, about two seconds later, the rocket hits the ground, explodes four meters away from the target, and from a distance of more than 100 meters, the explosion power of the rocket is not small.

Then a second rocket was fired, this time a little better, more than three meters off the target.

The two rocket launches were quite successful, as for the accuracy of the rockets, barely meeting the needs of the army and navy, the army mainly uses rockets to attack the enemy on the city wall, a target as big as the city wall, no matter how poor the accuracy of the rocket is, it can fly to the city wall and explode to kill the enemy, which is enough.

The navy is barely able to hit a small boat with rockets, but it is enough to hit the enemy's large ship with hundreds of people.

After determining the cost of the rockets, the four officers took their leave, got into a carriage and returned to the city of Guangzhou, where the carriage ran fairly steadily on the railroad tracks, and the officers took out pen and paper to write down the key points of what they had seen and heard today, and then returned to the city of Guangzhou to write a detailed report and hand it in.

The four officers, who had the highest rank of major and could serve as battalion commanders or deputy regiment commanders in the army, were not qualified to decide on the purchase of rockets and equipment for the troops.

If it feels appropriate, it will first purchase a batch of equipment for the army and navy on a small scale, and the army and navy will test and use it, and then they can purchase rocket equipment for the army and navy in large quantities.

The army and navy do not know what the army and navy think about rockets, and they will not care about it for the time being, even if the army and navy purchase rockets on a small scale, the matter does not need to go through Fang Nan's side, and only when the army and navy need to purchase rockets on a large scale, Fang Nan needs to approve it.

On the other hand, the armistice negotiations between the People's Army and the Ming Court were nearing the end, and the People's Army originally planned to ask the Ming for 5 million taels of silver and 30,000 craftsmen as a dowry on the basis of the Ming Court princess marrying the Grand Governor, and the two sides bargained for more than two months, and it was basically about to be determined, and the Ming Court needed to take out materials worth 3 million taels of silver and 3,000 craftsmen as a dowry.

Five million taels of silver was only reduced to three million taels, but thirty thousand artisan households were reduced to one-tenth, obviously the artisan households were more important than silver in the eyes of the Ming court, and they would rather give more silver than give more artisans to the People's Army.