When Apocalypse was discussing the relationship between the loyalty and ability of the generals with Zhang Weiying and Wang Yongguang, Ni Yuanlu came to report that the place where the cannon was made had been cleaned up, and asked Apocalypse to give them some suggestions. Everyone followed Ni Yuanlu out of the door and walked forward for a while, and entered a place where half of the patio and half of the verandah were verandahs, and a big hole was erected on the ground of the verandah, and a cannon barrel was erected in it. There is also a pit next to the big hole, and you can go down from a few steps to the bottom of the pit and enter the hole horizontally, presumably to fix the gun barrel for easy processing.

Tianqi asked Ni Yuanlu: "This is the new type of cannon you have been working on for more than half a year?" Seeing that you are like a treasure, let's talk about what is there about this thing that everyone should be happy about? ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "Your Majesty, no one dares to say that this kind of thing can succeed once, the reason why the minister is happy is because the minister has come up with a clever trick, but there are still some flaws, if you can make up for this defect, this new type of cannon is very different from the previous cannons." ”

Tianqi heard Ni Yuanlu say this, and asked with great interest: "Tell me where the trick is?" Where are the flaws? Maybe I, the British duke, and the king can help you a little. ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "In the past, the cannon had a short range and was easy to blow up, and Chen carefully studied and found that the reason for the short range was that the shells and gunpowder did not match the size of the barrel, and the main reason for the explosion was that the pig iron itself was easy to crack, and it was too heavy to carry if it was thickened." The minister accidentally thought, why not use copper and pig iron to make cannons? Isn't it solved that the first half of the barrel is made of pig iron, and the second half of the barrel is made of copper? ”

Apocalypse thought for a moment and asked, "It's that simple?" ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "How can these ministers be embarrassed to offer treasures? Splitting the barrel into two parts is just an idea, but it is not easy to connect well, and it will explode if you are not careful, but it used to blow up the barrel, but now it will blow the cannon in two. Later, the minister thought about whether he could make a sub-cannon, that is, he used the overall iron cannon as the mother cannon, but put a copper sub-cannon connected to the cannonball and gunpowder in the barrel, and after the cannonball was fired, he only needed to pour out the barrel of the sub-cannon and reload it to continue to use. In this way, the range is stable, it will not explode, and the speed of the launch will be accelerated, Your Majesty, do you think this treasure can be offered? ”

Seeing Ni Yuanlu's smiling face, Tianqi turned around and asked Wang Yongguang: "Lord Wang has been in the military department for a long time, and he must know a lot about the situation of armaments, how about Ni Yuanlu's thoughts?" Is there value in implementation? ”

Wang Yongguang thought for a while and said: "In the past, the cannon had to be charged, plugged tightly, and loaded before launching, and it was very troublesome to pour out the slag and wipe it clean after launching, and there would be problems if you didn't pay attention to it. Lord Ni's idea of this sub-cannon is very good, first of all, the amount of gunpowder can be set in advance to ensure the firing range, and the copper sub-cannon can avoid exploding, and it can be replaced quickly after loading and firing, if it succeeds, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army can indeed be greatly increased. ”

Ni Yuanlu said with a smile: "Your Majesty, the benefits don't stop there, if you succeed, you can also make the previous grenade into a cannonball, and you only need to make the grenade ignited by the medicine line into a flint impact and ignite, which can be said to be very powerful." After saying that, he shook his head and smiled.

Tianqi smiled: "Have you already seen 10,000 taels of silver flying in front of your eyes?" Don't worry, I won't break my word, but you should tell me what the flaws are and let you think about it. ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "The defect is that if the shells of the sub-cannon are made to be the same size, the size of the barrel of the mother cannon should also be made to be the same, but it is difficult to control it the same now." ”

Apocalypse asked, "Why is that?" They all use the same drill bits. ”

Ni Yuanlu shook his head and said: "The drill bit of the cannon is difficult to make and easy to wear, it used to be made of wrought iron and ground and then quenched to increase the hardness, but the small drill bit wears out the small and the big drill bit wears out, so that the caliber of the small cannon can be guaranteed, but the caliber of the cannon is getting smaller and smaller. ”

Tianqi thought about it carefully and said: "Where are you a small defect, it is related to materials, processing methods, technical improvements, etc., of course, it is not impossible to do it, but it is very troublesome." ”

Ni Yuanlu finally succeeded, but he was trapped in a small problem for a long time, just like a person who went through a lot of hardships to find a treasure, and after going through all kinds of difficulties and dangers, he saw the treasure, but he couldn't get it, so he couldn't do it in a hurry. I wanted to think more about how to succeed and then who knew that the apocalypse had to come to see it today, and he couldn't say everything with the psychology of the ugly daughter-in-law seeing her in-laws sooner or later, he just wanted to get the understanding of the apocalypse and let the apocalypse give him some more time, who knew that the apocalypse was not unable to make him excited.

Ni Yuanlu asked excitedly: "Does the emperor have a way to solve this problem?" As long as it can be solved, the minister is not afraid of trouble! After speaking, he looked at the apocalypse with a loss.

Tianqi thought about it and went to see the shelf where the drill bit was fixed, and then went down from the pit next to him to look at the fixing of the barrel, and said after coming up: "Your problem has three aspects, one is that the drill bit is not easy to compensate for after wear, resulting in the muzzle is not very round and smooth, and the caliber cannot be consistent; Second, the cannon is cast with pig iron, which is heavy and difficult to carry, so it should be made of other materials; The third is that there is a problem with the bearing of the winch that rotates the drill bit, which has to rotate and push downward, and the force is dispersed and causes flutter. ”

Ni Yuanlu was pleasantly surprised and said, "The emperor is so right, what is the solution?" ”

Apocalypse said: "Don't be in a hurry to take your time, first talk about the compensation problem after the wear of the drill bit, first make a drill body, fix the quenched drill piece on the drill body, the drill bit piece is made the same big wear and change a piece, is there a problem?" ”

Ni Yuanlu thought for a while and said: "It is indeed convenient to divide the drill bit into a drill body and a drill piece, but how to fix it accurately?" The method of setting the drill piece into the drill body may be inaccurate and unstable. ”

Tianqi said: "How to fix the bell to ask Deng Yuhan those Taixi people, they use screws and nuts to fix, you learn the principle and it will be of great use in the future." ”

Ni Yuanlu asked again: "The emperor said that both rotational and linear force is the cause of tremor, so how to solve it?" ”

Tianqi said: "Use wrought iron to make two large bearings to fix the barrel in the hole, so that it is easier for people to move the barrel on the ground than to rotate on it, and the drill stand on it only moves in a straight line up and down, so there should be no problem." ”

Ni Yuanlu thought for a while and asked, "Then how can I reduce the weight of the cannon?" The emperor said that the weight of the cast iron cannon is too large, and the copper is heavier and softer. ”

Apocalypse said, "Who said copper? To use wrought iron, the barrel of wrought iron does not need to be so thick, there will be no problem, the barrel is thin, it will naturally be lighter, and the original cast of pig iron This stupid big and thick cannon looks heavy. ”

Ni Yuanlu frowned and said: "There is no technology to cast wrought iron, and the method that the emperor said about first raising impurities from coal has not been tried, so I don't know if it is feasible." Besides, after forging, wrought iron is soft, soft and hard, and it is not easy to drill. ”

Apocalypse smiled and said, "There is yang in the world, and everything is inseparable from yang." You start to say that wrought iron will harden after quenching can be used as a drill bit, that is because the quenching is to burn the wrought iron red and quickly put it in cold water to cool down, if you burn the wrought iron red and put it on the ground to cool slowly, that is, the annealed wrought iron will become soft and evenly softened for easy processing, and then quenched after the processing is completed, isn't it right? ”

Seeing that Ni Yuanlu was thinking about it, Tianqi said: "Don't rush and take your time, if you have any doubts, you can experiment, my words are also a little true, you have to summarize while experimenting, I believe you will succeed." Let's start talking about the Tessie, they don't know these thoughts of yours, right? ”

Ni Yuanlu shook his head and said, "The minister hasn't told them yet, what does the emperor mean?" ”

Apocalypse said slowly: "Weapons and equipment are related to the fortune of the country, don't tell others easily, and besides, they are not my people, and it will not be wrong to say that 'those who are not of my race will have different hearts'." We have to find a way to know what they know, what they don't know and what we know must be kept secret, the British public has to explain it to those people in the military intelligence department, in addition to monitoring the army and businessmen, but also pay attention to these missionaries, I always feel that their purpose is not so simple ♀, there is no hatred for no reason, and there is no love for no reason, why should they bring that God's love to the people of Daming thousands of miles away for free? ”

Zhang Weiying and Ni Yuanlu bowed down and said, "Yes, the ministers obey the order!" ”

Tianqi asked: "I came here today and learned a little bit about the current situation here, is there anything else Ni Yuanlu has to do?" ”

Ni Yuanlu scratched his head and said with a twist: "I heard two days ago that the emperor has a Chishu company, and the development of new varieties of crops is all paid by the Chishu company. Now the development of grenades, mines, cannons and other things have to cost money, the emperor said to raise the bell to ask the Taixi people for advice, there should be a lot of power, these are not easy to do ♀ things without money, more and more people need to help, if there is no money, I am afraid that there are not many people who are willing to come, I don't know if the emperor can ......? ”

Tianqi smiled: "I talked about it for a long time, I was asking for money, and there is no problem with this." ”

Ni Yuanlu was overjoyed and said: "Thank you, Your Majesty!" I just don't know how much the emperor is willing to invest? The minister heard that Xu Guangqi and Lord Xu developed improved breeds, and the emperor gave 1,000 taels a month. ”

Looking at Ni Yuanlu's stunned look, Tianqi said: "Okay, I'll also give you a thousand taels a month, but not now, I have to wait for Lord Xu's good seeds to sell for money, and he doesn't need my support when he can sell it for money, and the one thousand taels a month that he used to give him will be transferred to you." However, in the future, your armaments department will have to transfer the research and development department to the Akaki company, and the imperial court will have to pay for new equipment in the future. ”