Yang Cong didn't expect that he would be able to be promoted to three levels in less than half a year, and he was promoted to the right side of the Imperial History of the Metropolitan Procuratorate.

At this time, he didn't have much time to think about the issue of official positions, the governor and the governor were actually similar in terms of authority, they were both big guys, but the governor sounded a little more weighty.

What he had to think about now was the issue of the Tartars.

During this time, he ordered the Xuanhua Plant to speed up the production of a batch of giant thunderbolts and thistles, even if the Tartars counterattacked, he was not too worried, with these things, it would definitely not be a problem to hold Xuanfu Town, and as long as these things were promoted, there would be no problem for other border towns in the Ming Dynasty to resist the invasion of the Tartars.

The next step is to think about how to destroy the Tartars, or how to get them out of the fortress.

If you take the initiative to attack, the trebuchet must not be able to bring, because the trebuchet is inherently heavy, even if it is pulled by a horse, the speed is not good, and it is impossible to take the trebuchet to encircle and suppress the Tartar cavalry, which is not to think about it, and it will not be able to catch up at all.

The fire dragon chariot is okay, as long as it is pulled by a horse, the speed is barely okay, although it can't run with the butt of the Tartar cavalry, and it is barely enough to complete tactics such as roundabouts.

However, the dragon chariot is only a defensive weapon, and the long-range attack is greatly reduced without the trebuchet, and it is difficult to say whether it can defeat the Tartar cavalry, so it is necessary to make muskets and cannons that are easier to carry than trebuchets.

This musket and artillery originally existed in the Ming Dynasty, and its manufacturing process Wang Xuan also had a detailed record in the "Five Elements Chapter" and "Instrument Chapter", and it didn't seem to be very difficult to build, but Yang Cong didn't want to build the existing types of muskets and artillery, because the existing muskets and artillery were too backward to be used against cavalry, whether it was range or rate of fire.

The range of the existing artillery is about two miles at most, and the range of the existing musket is at most two hundred paces, and it does not take much time for the cavalry to cross such a short distance, and the existing muskets and artillery are quite troublesome to load, if there is no preparation in advance, I am afraid that the Tartar cavalry will rush to the front, and the ammunition has not yet been loaded.

This may be the reason why the Ming army did not vigorously develop gunpowder weapons, because of the problem of loading speed or rate of fire, the existing muskets and artillery in front of the Tartar cavalry have no advantage at all, if people carry out surprise attacks, these muskets and artillery will not even have time to load, which is equivalent to a pile of scrap metal.

This statement is not an exaggeration at all, the muskets and artillery in these years are front-loaded, that is, the gunpowder is poured into it first, compacted, and then the bullets or shells are stuffed in, this process takes a lot of time, especially when loading, the bullets and shells are rubbed into the barrel and barrel, which is very troublesome.

So, how much time does such a reloading process take?

Yang Cong specially tested that even if it is the largest number of musketeers and artillerymen in the Shenji Battalion, it takes a stick of incense to load musket bullets at the earliest, a tea time to load artillery ammunition at the earliest, and it doesn't take so long for the Tatar cavalry to cross the range of muskets or artillery.

That is to say, if the Tartar cavalry is attacked by a sneak attack, and the ammunition of the musket and artillery is not loaded, the Tartar cavalry has already crossed the range of the musket and artillery, and the musket and artillery are equivalent to being wasted.

Moreover, muskets and artillery in these years could not be loaded with ammunition in advance, because gunpowder was not wrapped in containers at all, and if it was loaded in advance and then carried away for a while, the compacted gunpowder would soon loosen, and the explosion would be much less powerful, and even bullets and shells could not be fired after ignition, let alone kill and injure the enemy.

Therefore, the old-fashioned muskets and artillery are too backward, and with such weapons and equipment to chase down the Tartar cavalry, it is no different from looking for death, as long as people ambush or turn back to raid, it will definitely be beaten and will not be able to find the north.

So, how to speed up the reloading of ammunition?

If this question is considered by people of this era, I am afraid that it will take a few years to rack their brains, but it will only be a matter of a few minutes for Yang Cong to think about it, because he knows what guns will look like in later generations.

To speed up the reload, it's easy to change both muskets and guns to rear-loaded, and it's best to make simple encapsulated bullets and shells according to the existing conditions, so that the reload speed is terrifying, and you can fire immediately by pushing the encapsulated bullets and shells inside.

There is certainly no problem with this idea, but it seems a little difficult to implement it in this era, because this era does not have the level of processing of later generations, and the concept of rear-loading muskets and artillery is not in everyone's mind.

So, how to make rear-loading muskets and guns?

Yang Cong thought about it for a long time, and carefully read the "Five Elements Chapter" and "Equipment Chapter" compiled by Wang Xuan, and gradually had some ideas in his heart.

On this day, he summoned Wang Xuan, Tang Shunzhi, Zhao Shichun and other relevant officials and some craftsman leaders to a temporary conference room in the Xuanhua Factory, ready to start arranging.

This conference room is also a novelty here, because here the officials organize their subordinates to discuss either in the public court or in the study, and everyone stands respectfully below, while the chief officer sits alone and gives orders.

This is to show the authority of the commander, but it is obviously not possible to discuss how to make muskets and artillery, because everyone has to look at the relevant drawings to discuss, and it is obviously not possible to stand there and dream, or look at the outline from a distance.

Therefore, Yang Cong ordered people to arrange such a conference room, and there was a big round table for dinner, and then all the officials sat around the round table as if they were going to the banquet.

At the beginning, when Wang Xuan, Tang Shunzhi and others walked into the conference room, they really thought that Yang Cong was going to invite them to dinner, Yang Cong didn't say anything, and when he came in, he politely invited someone to sit down, as if he wanted to invite everyone to dinner.

However, the personnel were all there, and no one served the food, but Shen Lian gave everyone a huge scroll.

Under the curious gaze of everyone, Yang Cong slowly unfolded the scroll and spread it out in the middle of the round table.

This is a drawing of a new type of musket, which not only has the overall structure of the musket, but also the split drawing of various parts, which is dense and dizzying.

As soon as the drawings were unfolded, everyone had shocked expressions on their faces.

Everyone knows that this is a musket, because in the middle of the drawing is a complete musket, but no one expected that the drawing can be drawn like this, and all the parts can be attached around the musket, which has never been seen before.

Yang Cong looked at everyone's shocked expressions, and couldn't help but say proudly: "This is a new type of musket I conceived, loading ammunition from behind, and the ammunition is packaged in advance, and it can be pushed inside, what do you think?" ”