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After a long talk with Wen Anzhi for an hour, Zhu Cihong felt that he benefited a lot.

Although Wen Anzhi's insight cannot be compared to Zhu Cihong from later generations, his analysis of the problem is very in-depth and can be described as hitting the nail on the head.

Although Zhu Cihong also did academic research in his previous life, he is nothing compared to Wen Anzhi. His strength comes more from the explosive input of information and his knowledge of the past historical trends.

Although Zhu Cihong wanted to continue chatting with Wen Anzhi, considering that Wen Anzhi was already sixty-two years old and should not be too tired, he first asked Wen Anzhi to leave the palace to rest.

Anyway, Wen Anzhi has already resumed his post as the left waiter of the Ministry of Rites, and there will be opportunities to ask him for advice in the future.

After Wen Anzhi retreated, Zhu Cihong immediately instructed the chamberlain to prepare for the shoulder and set up the Ministry of Works.

Last time, he drew a simple drawing of the structure of the fortress and handed it to Gao Hongtu, the secretary of the ministry. Now that a few days have passed, Zhu Cihong is eager to see how it goes.

The travel of the Son of Heaven is by no means a trivial matter, and it takes a lot of time just to prepare for the honor guard and guard.

Rao is Zhu Cihong emphasized that everything is simple, and when he arrived at the Yamen of the Ministry of Industry, half an hour had passed.

When the Son of Heaven arrived, officials from the Ministry of Industry knelt down and saluted. Zhu Cihong raised his hand and signaled them all to get up and handle official business as usual, and asked Gao Hongtu to accompany him.

The two of them came to the Interior Office one after the other, and Zhu Cihong just sat down and asked straight to the point: "How is the matter assigned by me that day?" The fortress could be built on a large scale? ”

Gao Hongtu bowed deeply to Zhu Cihong and said respectfully: "Back to Your Majesty, the old minister has transferred the most skilled masons and stonemasons in Nandu, and after reading the drawings drawn by His Majesty, they have said that this fortress is much more difficult to build than ordinary forts. ”

Zhu Cihong frowned when he heard this, and the good mood of Fang Cai and Wen Anzhi's guidance was swept away.

Things were more difficult than he had imagined, and if even the craftsmen of Nanjing felt that it was difficult to build the forts, it would probably take a long time to build the forts throughout the northern part of Shandong.

Actually, it's a matter of habit.

The craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were accustomed to building boxy cities, and they would definitely feel uncomfortable suddenly letting them build fortresses. This is not something that Zhu Cihong can do by throwing out a diagram of the structure of a fortress. The same is true of flintlock pistols, although the structure of this gun does not seem to be very complicated, but the craftsmen cannot pierce the layer of window paper.

In this regard, although Zhu Cihong was very disappointed, he couldn't blame Gao Hongtu too much, and comforted him with kind words: "Da Sikong doesn't have to be ashamed, I just put forward an idea." However, I still feel that the advantages of the fortress are obvious, even if it is difficult to build, I must build a dozen of them on the outskirts of Texas, and do whatever it takes to do so. ”

The benefits of centralized rule in feudal dynasties were evident at this time, when the monarch could muster all the resources at his disposal and concentrate on what he considered most important.

Didn't the craftsmen find it difficult to build the fortress? Well, the number of buildings can be reduced from a few dozen to a dozen.

What the? A dozen is too much? I'm sorry, but it's a holy decree.

Of course, Zhu Cihong will also send all the best masons and stonemasons to the Texas front. Since these people are all novices in building the fortress and have limited business ability, it is better to pile up the number of people.

Regardless of whether the Eastern Prisoners will adjust their strategy and tilt their forces towards the eastern front, Zhu Cihong must prepare for the worst.

If Kong Youde and other Han troops really used several red-coated cannons to storm Texas in turn, Zhu Cihong would really feel a little bottomless.

The best way is to use the fortress to block and delay the Qing army's offensive.

The fortress was built on the way of the Qing army to Texas, and if it wanted to attack Texas, it would have to remove these nails.

And if the Qing army wants to uproot these fortresses, it is impossible to do it for a year and a half.

"The old minister obeys."

Gao Hongtu naturally didn't dare to say anything more.

Although the Son of Heaven did not explicitly reprimand him, there was already a faint hint of dissatisfaction in his words.

No matter how difficult it is to build a fortress, Gao Hongtu must grit his teeth and take the task next at this moment.

"Your Majesty, the batch of bird guns and Lumi guns newly produced by the Firearms Department have been test-fired, and they rarely explode, can they be equipped with the Shence Army?"

Gao Hongtu had the intention to save his image in Zhu Cihong's mind, so he turned to a batch of firearms newly made by the Firearms Division.

In his opinion, this errand was done very beautifully by himself.

Since the end of Wanli, the quality of the guns made by the Ministry of Industry cannot be guaranteed. Because of the cutting of corners in the materials and the uneven thickness of the inner wall of the beaten gun, the bore is often exploded.

Soldiers often blow themselves up half-crippled as soon as they fire their guns, so they are afraid of guns.

In this regard, the officials of the Ministry of Industry did not have a very good solution. Because the amount of money allocated by the imperial court to the Ministry of Industry was limited, the number of firecrackers required to be built was fixed. In order to complete the task, he could only cut corners on materials and made batches of shoddy firecrackers.

It's pretty much the same as being used as a burning stick, but it's wishful thinking to kill an enemy a hundred paces away.

But that's all changed now.

Today, not only did he set up a firearms department, but he also allocated a large amount of money from the internal treasury to make high-quality firearms, and the quality of firearms made in this way was naturally very high.

Zhu Cihong shook his head: "It's not enough to just not blow up the chamber, the power of the firearm depends not only on the firearm itself, but also on the gunpowder." ”

Since it was impossible to make a flintlock pistol at the moment, Zhu Cihong could only retreat to the second best thing to maximize the power of the arquebus.

In addition to the explosion of the chamber, arquebuses in the late Ming Dynasty also had a common problem, that is, limited lethality.

It is difficult for the Three-Eyed Gun to kill a soldier in cotton armor at a distance of thirty paces, and the effective killing range of the Bird Gun against a soldier is also within fifty paces.

The firearms equipped in the Qi family's army have an effective range of more than 50 paces for the Three-Eyed Gun and as high as 150 paces for the Bird's Gun.

It's a world of difference!

Since the Qi family's firearms can reach a range of one hundred and fifty paces, why has it degraded so badly after only a few decades?

In addition to some of the problems of the gunpowder itself, the most important thing is that the imperial court at the end of the Ming Dynasty no longer paid attention to the configuration and preservation of gunpowder.

At this time, gunpowder was not chemical gunpowder in later generations, but black powder.

Although Zhu Cihong did not study engineering in his previous life, he also knew that black powder must be dried and preserved, and it must not be damp.

At this time, gunpowder was generally in powder form, which was highly susceptible to moisture. The worst thing is that the imperial court will often dry the damp gunpowder and continue to use it. At this time, the gunpowder will generally condense into lumps of different sizes, and the power will be greatly reduced.

In order to get the most out of black powder, it is necessary to make it granular.

"From now on, I will ensure that every scoop out of a barrel of gunpowder must be granular. Only by doing this can the newly created firearms of the Firearms Division be able to exert its maximum power. ”

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