The soldiers on patrol came back to report that a group of people were about to come in through the side of the hill, and it was said that they were officials from the capital, and more than one soldier who had been on patrol came first to pass the word. Hearing this news, Ni Yuanlu couldn't help but be a little afraid, it turned out that at the beginning, Wei Liu was impatient, and said that it doesn't matter if he has someone to set off a shot, let's talk about it, finish it early and go home early for dinner, Ni Yuanlu saw that there was no one for a long time, and there were few people on the side of the hillside, so he almost agreed. Wei Liu couldn't speak with his mouth wide open when he heard this, and after thinking about it, he hurriedly asked Ni Yuanlu not to tell him about it, and Ni Yuanlu glared at him and agreed.

After a while, I saw a large group of people walking with four sedan chairs, stopped at the bottom of the hillside, and then walked up the hillside, because it was a little dark, and the attendants all lit torches, and the fire shook and it was impossible to see who it was. After walking a few more steps, Ni Yuanlu recognized that it was Xu Guangqi and Tan Jing, the eunuch beside Tianqi, who walked in front, Ni Yuanlu hurriedly stepped forward to greet and asked if Tianqi had a will, Tan Jing shook his head and said that when Mao Yuanyi and Sun Yuanhua also came, everyone was very excited under the firelight. Seeing that Xu Guangqi and Tan Jing were here, Ni Yuanlu knew that Tianqi attached great importance to this matter, and immediately asked if there was any reason why several people came together overnight.

Xu Guangqi smiled and nodded, "It seems that Lord Ni is about to test the gun, and we are in a hurry, so let's try it first and then talk slowly." ”

Ni Yuanlu thought for a while and said: "It's not a formal test, just see if it can be released, the black light and blind fire cannon itself is also dangerous, the lower officials haven't eaten yet, I'm afraid you are hungry at this time, it's better for us to go down and eat first." Let Wei Liu, the assistant of the lower official, do the matter of the cannon, and ask him when the time comes, whether it is loud or not, I will come back tomorrow morning to see the results, I don't know what Lord Xu thinks? ”

It is best to choose a place on the side of a mountain or a sparsely populated place, so as not to hurt people by shells or explosive soil and rocks, because the shells, cannon bodies and the amount of medicine may not be easy to control during the test. At the same time as choosing the location, it is necessary to choose the time, generally in the afternoon or evening, it is best to choose before the rain, because the test is likely to not sound, at this time it is best not to easily approach to check to avoid danger, you must put it all night and wait for the dew or rain to completely wet the lead, so that you can rest assured to investigate the situation.

Xu Guangqi saw that Ni Yuanlu was reasonable, so he agreed, and everyone went down the hillside to the house to eat, someone had already arranged the wine and rice dishes, and there were many people in the house in Linyuan Xu Guangqi and the entourage they brought were also arranged. As soon as everyone sat down and didn't start drinking, they heard a loud muffled sound coming from the hillside behind, Ni Yuanlu was excited and knew that this cannon without a fire rope was fired, and was about to send someone to call Wei Liu to ask, when a soldier ran to tell him that Wei Liu was injured again, saying that he had injured his foot by a stone.

Ni Yuanlu asked strangely: "How did you hurt your foot?" Serious or not? The shells hit far away? ”

The soldier who reported the news said: "Wei Liu and another person lifted a stone and smashed the iron rod, who knew that they smashed the cannon and exploded, and the iron rod popped out and smashed a stone on the ground." The stone hurt Wei Liu's foot when it landed, but fortunately, it was not very powerful, and someone had already helped him to rest, and the cannonball hit far away and I didn't see it, but it was hit anyway. ”

Ni Yuanlu nodded and said, "Send Wei Liu something to eat, and after you finish eating, send someone to guard the cannon and don't let people approach." ”

After the soldiers left, Ni Yuanlu picked up a glass of wine and said to Tan Jing: "Father-in-law Tan has worked hard from afar, and the official will first salute you, and the official did not ask in detail at first, since the emperor has no will, is there anything to say about Father-in-law Tan taking the time to come here?" Xia Guan knows that the palace and the palace are inseparable from you, and you will definitely not come here to play casually. ”

Tan Jing took a sip of wine and said: "The emperor really doesn't have a specific will, just let me take a look and ask casually, the specific things are all decided by the three adults." ”

Xu Guangqi saw Ni Yuanlu looking at him and said, "I just asked two words, but if you want to ask and remember it after eating, Lord Ni can't help but let the two of them talk about their affairs." ”

Mao Yuanyi is a very easy-going person, he said while eating: "This cannon miniaturization has always been done by Lord Ni, and there is no need for others to ask if you continue to do it, but since the emperor said that the development of armaments should be operated through the Evergain Company, and Lord Sun and I are now in charge of the Armaments Department, so we have to ask the specific situation to see if it is feasible." Father-in-law Tan could have sent someone on behalf of Evergain Company, but the emperor was very concerned about this matter when he saw your recital, so he asked Father-in-law Tan to come in person. ”

Mao Yuanyi's words explained the purpose of his several people's coming, Ni Yuanlu understood as soon as he heard it, waved his hand to the people around him and let them go down, and then said, "What do you want to know about the adults?" ”

Sun Yuanhua asked: "Let's start with the injury of Wei Liu, you talked about the sub-cannon in the commotion to the emperor, saying that the sub-cannon made of copper is placed in the mother cannon made of fine iron, which can not only prevent the deformation of the cannon body but also prevent the cannon body from cracking, and the most important thing is that the cannon body can be made thinner, and the cannon can be miniaturized under the premise of undiminished power." We looked at your idea and thought it made sense, and it just so happened that Lord Xu was also interested, so we came immediately, but you didn't say in the recital that you only need to smash the stick to set off the cannon, so let's talk about it. ”

Ni Yuanlu listened to Sun Yuanhua's words and understood why Tianqi didn't reply immediately, it turned out that he was looking for someone to ask and brought Xu Guangqi over, which shows that this matter has been valued by everyone up and down. After thinking about it, he explained his practice of igniting gunpowder by making a homemade fire sickle, and said that it was inspired by the advice of Wu Xiang's son Wu Sangui, and cleared himself of the suspicion that he had known for a long time but did not want to say it.

After listening to Ni Yuanlu's words, Sun Yuanhua said: "The emperor wants to invest in the development of valuable armaments projects through the Evergain Company, and the Armaments Department is specially for the Evergain Company to do the identification matters, and ordinary armaments such as broadswords, bows and arrows are still purchased by the Ministry of War. Originally, I thought it was worth investing after reading Lord Ni's recital, but now when I hear this practice of replacing the fire rope with a fire sickle, I believe that Lord Mao has the same opinion as me, what do you think of my father-in-law? ”

Tan Jing saw that Mao Yuanyi also nodded again and again, so he said: "I don't understand what you said, but the emperor said that if you think it is worth investing, I will give money here, and the specific amount will be said by Lord Xu." ”

Ni Yuanlu didn't understand the reason why these people came together until now, it turned out that Ni Yuanlu thought that he was afraid of leaking secrets and wrote a recital directly to Tianqi, but Tianqi gave the chapter to the Armaments Department for them to deal with, which also shows that Tianqi has absolute trust in the people in the Military Affairs Academy, and of course it can be said to be effective control. Last time, Shi Quan suggested using duck down instead of cotton to make the armor lining of soldiers in winter, saying that it was lighter and thinner than cotton to keep warm, so as to avoid soldiers being too bloated and inflexible when fighting, Tianqi discussed with Sun Chengzong and decided to reward five thousand taels as long as it was effective, and later felt that there should be a system for this reward amount, and it could not be said casually, Xu Guangqi may have come to do this.

After eating, everyone changed places to drink tea, Xu Guangqi first asked someone to prepare pen and ink, and then said to Ni Yuanlu: "Originally, this matter should also be seen by Sun and Mao, and then reported to the emperor, after all, it is the emperor's money to invest, and he should decide how much to invest." But it just so happened that the emperor met me so he asked me to take a look, I want to determine the value of a project should be based on how many strengths it has that others do not have, Lord Ni will say what strengths you have as a sub-mother cannon, I will write it down and finally report to the emperor It is up to him to decide, whether it is a reward or an investment amount. ”

After listening to this, Ni Yuanlu said: "First, the sub-mother shell is not easy to explode, in the past, copper was used as a barrel, but the copper was too soft, it would not burst but it would explode and deform, and the shell could not be stuffed into the muzzle, and the cannon would be scrapped." The barrel is not easy to deform but easy to crack with pig iron or fine iron, in order not to blow up the bore, only thicken the gun body, so that the miniaturization of the cannon is impossible to talk about, and the principle of the sub-mother cannon is equivalent to the combination of copper cannon and iron cannon. ”

Xu Guangqi asked: "I know the principle, your sub-cannon can only ensure that the mother cannon body is a fine iron cannon that does not deform or crack, and the sub-cannon body is a copper cannon body that will definitely be deformed, and it will be scrapped if you put one or two cannons, how many sub-cannons are you going to build when you fight?" ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "This is the second advantage of the sub-cannon, in the final analysis, this sub-cannon is the charge and the power generated by the explosion of gunpowder, no matter how much it is deformed, it can be replaced once, it can be said that there are as many shells as there are copper sub-cannon bodies in the future." We now have to load the gunpowder and press it tightly, then put in the shell, ignite the ignition rope to detonate the gunpowder, after the first shot, we have to turn the muzzle upside down to remove the waste residue, and before putting the gunpowder, we must first cool the gun body with water and then wipe it dry, so as not to explode as soon as the gunpowder is put in. In this way, the time to spend on these is very long, how simple the sub-cannon is, after putting a cannon, take the baffle and exit the sub-cannon body to replace it with a new sub-cannon. ”

Sun Yuanhua said in surprise: "This is indeed a great progress, no need to use the fire rope to ignite the gunpowder with the fire sickle in the impact cannon, so as to save a lot of things, not to mention that there is no fear of strong wind and rain, and the gunpowder will be changed into a reloaded gun, and its speed is not a little or two." ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "I haven't calculated how fast it is, but it is a rough estimate of the time for ordinary cannons to fire two cannons, and it is no problem for the sub-mother cannon to fire ten cannons." ”

Mao Yuanyi also nodded and said: "This gap is too big, we have never dared to use artillery to fight the Jurchens in the field, because after the first shot, the enemy has already rushed over before the second shot is ready." If you use sub-cannons, you can put several cannons before the enemy rushes over, as long as there is a dense artillery array, what Jurchen troops are afraid of? ”

Xu Guangqi said: "It's true, it's just that each shell is equipped with a copper sub-barrel that costs too much, but it is worth it no matter how much it costs to fight." After speaking, he looked at Ni Yuanlu with a smile and nodded his head in appreciation.

Ni Yuanlu originally wanted to keep a hand, but Xu Guangqi, who was named Hou, couldn't help but praise himself, and said his biggest idea impulsively, he said: "These two points are nothing, I mean that after the success of the sub-mother cannon, it can be used on the musket, that is, to make the sub-mother gun." Think about it, my lords, if the musket did not need to be charged, the barrel was not cleaned and the gun was loaded and fired continuously, would we still be afraid of the Jurchens and the Mongols? Even if they rush together, they can only be targeted by the soldiers, right? ”