"Li Cheng? I remember that your name is Hu Yuancheng, why did you change your name to Li Cheng? Yun Xi originally planned to observe him for a while and ask him how he was doing in Daming these days, but when he heard him call himself Li Cheng, he couldn't help but ask.

"Your Majesty, although the father of the grass people claims to be the Emperor Shun among the three emperors and five emperors, this is just a pretext made by the father to usurp the throne, although the ancestors of the grass people are indeed from the Central Plains, and they are indeed originally surnamed Hu, but there are so many people with the surname Hu in the world, and the genealogy of my family when they were in the Central Plains has long been lost, how can I call myself Emperor Shun? So the grass people changed back to their original surnames. Li Cheng said.

In addition, there was another reason for him to change his surname back to Li: to express to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty that he had forgotten the incident of meeting the Ming soldiers, and to surrender to the Ming Dynasty.

Yun Xi of course understood his second meaning, and his expression suddenly softened a lot: "That's okay, you can rest assured in Daming, I will not discriminate." Then he asked, "Do you know where your ancestors were?" If you are willing to return to your hometown, I will allow it. ”

"Your Majesty, the grass people don't know. The ancestors of the grass people were in Guangxi before they came to Annan, but they were not native of Guangxi, and they probably moved from the north, but it is difficult to verify where they moved from because of the loss of genealogy. ”

"Besides, even if the grass people and the people still know where their ancestors came from, since His Majesty has arranged for the grass people to be in Tianchang County and the suburbs of Beijing, wouldn't it cost the Ming Dynasty money if the grass people and others moved to other places? How does this work? Li Cheng said again.

"I remember that most of the people of your clan have migrated to Tianchang County, and less than twenty households are left to join Wu Dewei, but they also make a living from farming on weekdays, are the people of your clan still used to it?" Yun Xi asked again.

"How not to get used to it? My family was in Thanh Hoa in Annam before my father's career, and I said that I was a landlord, but the children of the family also had to work in the fields on weekdays, so I have been more lenient in the past 30 years. So although the young children are not quick with their hands and feet, they are still passable. Li Cheng said.

Yun Hee knew that of course he was lying. Hu Jichen had two aunts who were married to the monarch of Annan as concubines at that time, and although their family had a low official position in the court at that time, they did not need to work in the fields by themselves. However, he was still very happy to say this.

After asking about the situation at home, Yun Xi exchanged a few words with him, coughed, and said: "A few days ago, someone recommended you to Shangzhiwei as an official, saying that you are good at building firearms and commanding firearms to fight. It just so happened that I was also very interested in firearms, so I called you into the palace to talk to you. ”

Li Cheng understood that this was the end of his political test, and examined his practical ability, so he immediately cheered up his spirit, straightened out his thoughts, and said: "Your Majesty, the minister does have some experience in building firearms. ”

"Your Majesty, although I Annan cast a large number of cannons and firecrackers after my father heard that His Royal Highness King Min used cannons to fight in Burma, before that, because I had heard that General Fu Youde Fu and King Qianning had used cannons when they attacked Yunnan, so I was very interested in developing firearms when I was a child, and often used copper and iron to cast firearms in private. Over time, the grass people have some experience in building firearms. He then spoke of the method he used to forge firearms.

First of all, some special wooden molds are made to be used as supports. After completion, create a blank male model. The shape of a cannon is first wrapped with straw rope on the support, and then a plaster made of clay and water is pasted on the blank male mold. When all the plaster is dry, apply a layer of wax to the outside of the blank male mold so that its surface will become smooth. The gun tail is a wooden mold made of a car, fixed to a blank male mold with nails.

After the male mold is completed, it is used to make the casting mold of the casting gun. The mould is made by mixing different types of clay with water and applying it to the mould. After the mold is thoroughly dried, the male mold is taken out by cutting the head and tail of the casting mold, taking out the support of the inner core of the male mold, and pulling out the winding straw rope. Because the surface of the male mold is coated with a layer of wax, it is relatively easy to take out. The molds for the gun tail are made separately.

The core is then created, which is made of clay attached to an iron bar, usually in the shape of a cylinder. The core is loaded into the main mold, and the iron core brace mounted at the tail of the main mold and the clay ring of the mold muzzle hold the core in place.

The separately made tail and barrel molds were reassembled, the molds were roasted to make them completely solid, and finally the molds were buried in a compacted pit next to the furnace with the muzzle facing up.

Then it is the pouring of molten iron and copper. After the casting was completed, the mold and the cannon were dug out of the mud pit after another twelve hours. Then wait for the gun body to cool down completely, and then break the casting mold to clean up the remaining ash on the gun body. At this point, a cannon is cast.

"However, after that, it is necessary to bore the breech, which means that the light in the chamber can reflect the light. However, although boring can make the inside of the cannon more tidy, it cannot make the inside of the barrel as smooth as a steel plate cut out, and there will still be unevenness. And it is not easy to lighten, even the most skilled craftsmen can hardly complete it quickly. ”

"And the most important thing is to cast a clay mold. The mud mold must be dried thoroughly, otherwise although the appearance is dry, the inside is moist, and when it encounters the copper and iron that melts into the water body, it will produce moisture, and the cast cannon will have honeycomb, and the cannon is easy to explode and hurt people when it is cast. It often takes up to a month to dry the clay mold, and if it is raining, snowy, and cold, it will take two or three months. ”

"Your Majesty, the grass people have not communicated with the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty about the method of casting cannons, and I don't know whether the method of casting cannons of the Ming Dynasty is superior or inferior to the method of casting cannons of the ministers, if it is better than the method of casting cannons of the grass people, I don't know if the method of casting cannons of the grass people can have advantages." Li Cheng said. Then he lowered his hands and bowed his head and stood.

After he said this, his original intention was to wait for Yun Xi to call the craftsman who cast the cannon in the Ming Dynasty or let him go to the place where the cannon was cast to talk to the craftsman, and conclude whether he was good or bad in casting the cannon. But for a long time, he didn't hear a voice coming from in front of him, and he couldn't help but wonder: 'What is Your Majesty thinking at this time?' ’

How did he know that Yun Xi was a little surprised at this time. Because he wanted to summon Li Cheng, he learned in advance about the method of casting cannons in the Ming Dynasty, and knew that the method that Li Cheng said was not much different from the current method of the Ming Dynasty, which used clay molds to cast cannons, but the details were optimized, such as the stiffeners used in casting clay molds. This will allow the Ming Dynasty to improve the process of casting cannons.

'As the old saying goes, there must be a teacher in a threesome, and it seems to make sense. Even a small country may not have something to learn from. Yun Xi thought.