Zhang Xiangan didn't understand why his father suddenly seemed to be a different person today, and when he returned home, he wanted to ask but didn't know where to start. Zhang Xiangan has always thought that his father Zhang Weiying is an introverted person, although he knows everything and even understands it much more than ordinary people, but he is not publicistic at all. The latest free chapters of the book can be found here. But today, Zhang Weiying is abnormal, and strongly asks Tianqi to agree to the big iron company to accept retired soldiers, although there is a certain amount of truth, but this is obviously not in line with Zhang Weiying's consistent style, which makes Zhang Xiangan very happy.

Not long after Zhang Xiang'an's death, just after dinner, the housekeeper came to tell him that his father had told him to go, and he immediately followed the housekeeper to Zhang Weiying's study. It's almost the New Year, the weather is very cold, so the study only opens the window for a while at noon, and in the evening, the window is closed and the lights are lit, Zhang Xiangan did not speak after entering the study, and stood there quietly looking at Zhang Weiying, who was also quietly watching the lights.

Zhang Weiying waited for a while before asking, "Have you eaten?" ”

Zhang Xiangan said: "I have already eaten it." ”

Zhang Weiying asked, "You don't want to ask something?" ”

Zhang Xiangan thought for a while and said: "What the father does is reasonable, what he should let his son know will definitely say, and what he shouldn't let me know will ask in vain." ”

Zhang Weiying smiled and pointed to the chair next to him and said, "You sit down, tomorrow I will confess to the emperor, saying that I was rude and rude yesterday, and asked to go home to support the elderly." ”

Zhang Xiangan asked: "The emperor stipulates that the ministers of the DPRK and China will retire at 70, and my father is not yet the age of retirement, so why do you want to go home to retire?" ”

Zhang Weiying did not answer Zhang Xiangan's question, but asked rhetorically: "There are only you and me here, father and son, tell me what kind of person do you think the current emperor is?" What will the future emperor do? ”

Zhang Xiangan thought for a while and said: "The emperor in the past was confused, and after falling into the water last summer, it was said that he was reprimanded by Taizu to cheer up, but now he is sometimes shrewd and sometimes lazy, and he can't see what he will do in the future." ”

Zhang Weiying shook his head and said: "I'm afraid that Taizu's admonition is nonsense, but it is possible to fall into the water and be stimulated, ♀ the way to be a king lies in Corporal Lixian, diligent and loving the people, the emperor respects the virtuous and loves the people, but laziness is criticized, for the father, I am afraid that the emperor will not do things for a long time." The things discussed in the Military Affairs Yuan today are all very important, and they will take a long time to complete, and what you two brothers should do in the future depends on whether the emperor has the idea of insisting. ”

Zhang Xiangan asked: "Is this the reason why my father is abnormal today?" ”

Zhang Weiying nodded and said: "A person who is perfunctory and has not grown up will definitely not be satisfied with other people's accusations, if the emperor offends him because of his father today, he will definitely agree to let me go home tomorrow to retire, if so, you will have to talk less and see more in the future, after two years for my father to pass on the title to you, I will practice to avoid disasters in the future." If the emperor tries his best to keep it, it means that the emperor has a long-term mind and will not mind small things, so you have to find a way to go to the front to fight for some military merits and come back to add some weight to yourself. ”

Zhang Xiangan asked: "The affairs of the Military Affairs Institute are few, close to home, and the responsibility is light, how did the father think of asking his son to go to the front?" ”

Zhang Weiying said: "According to the discussion at today's meeting, the imperial court will set up several more military zones across the country, and at that time, people from the military staff department will definitely need to exercise, and you must first pay attention to where is suitable for you." The affairs of the military council are to come up with ideas, to make ideas to earn money, and the poor people do it at that time, and you are not short of money, and you should use military merits to prove your ability. The emperor likes obedient people on the one hand, and he likes capable people on the other, but he likes people who are both capable and obedient the most. ”

The next day, the apocalypse received Zhang Weiying's message to the elder, and he immediately asked the eunuch to send a message to comfort and keep him, saying that the British Duke is the pillar of the country and worthy of trust, and from yesterday's discussion, it can be seen that the British Duke is wise and far-reaching, and when he is seventy years old, he will enter the Holy Academy to grasp the direction for the country.

On the twenty-third day of the lunar month, Tianqi asked Zhang Weiying and Wang Yongguang to go with him to the former Wang Gong Factory, which used to belong to the Ministry of War to store gunpowder, and now it is the place where Ni Yuanlu developed guns. After everyone entered Wang Gong's factory, Tianqi led everyone to walk inside, and saw that there were newly built houses and warehouses everywhere, and even the walls and floors were newly built, and Tianqi couldn't help but nod and praise the efficiency of Zhao Shujiao.

Ni Yuanlu was happy to see the apocalypse, and tried to ask: "It's going to be the New Year, why does the emperor want to come here?" It's very dirty and messy here, don't be angry, your majesty. ”

Apocalypse said: "I'm here today to see what you've done this year, why haven't you made any big cannons and small cannons?" ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "In the past, the cannon could be used, but it was not easy to use, it was easy to explode, not to mention that the range was not far, and it was okay to use it when it was pulled to the top of the mountain and city, but it was really too far away from the cannons of foreigners." Our new cannon now has relatively high requirements, in addition to range and safety, we must also consider the ease of carrying, to do this, we must be as accurate as Deng Yuhan said, and then as before casual casting is definitely not possible. Although the cannon is still almost on fire, but the small cannon can be said to be no problem, a while ago just improved more than 1,000 tiger squat cannons let Zhang Jing'an Zhang Master Zhang want to go, they said that this kind of small cannon is easy to carry is suitable for their mountain combat. ”

Apocalypse asked, "Are you talking about that piglet cannon?" What kind of improvements have you made? ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "First of all, the riser design during casting has been changed, so that the inner wall is smooth and there is no trachoma. Then, with the help of Deng Yuhan and others, the drill bit was improved, so that the inner hole wall drilled was smooth and even, and the range and safety were significantly improved. ”

Apocalypse asked, "If the small cannon can be made well, why can't the cannon be made in the same way?" ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "Your Majesty, the caliber of the cannon is large, we don't have such a big drill bit now, the big drill bit made by the soil method is unstable, and the problem of the iron cannon blasting is still unavoidable, Deng Yuhan said that the copper casting is used for experiments first, and if there is an effect, the cannon can be made of forged steel." ”

Apocalypse asked, "How are you going to make forged steel?" ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "Shen Kuo wrote in "Mengxi Pen Talk" that the method of exercising refined iron into steel is to constantly hammer the refined iron, temper it once and lighter once, until the weight is no longer light after tempering, and the forging steel is also practiced, but it is more troublesome to process the gun chamber. ”

Tianqi thought for a while and said, "I heard that you have to hear the sound of clanging here day and night, it turns out that you want to use the method of smelting and continuous forging to make steel, is it because I want to come to see it today to stop the forging sound?" I don't know exactly how to make steel, but I can give you an idea, and if you do it slowly, you may be able to make good steel and good guns. ”

Ni Yuanlu was overjoyed and said: "The emperor is wise and wise, and with the emperor's guidance, he will definitely be able to get twice the result with half the effort." ”

Tianqi said: "Don't expect too much, I am just talking about ♀ the process of turning iron ore into pig iron, wrought iron, and steel, in fact, it is the process of constantly refining the grains while constantly removing impurities, and people generally do it through high-temperature smelting and continuous forging. You have to find a way to increase the temperature of the fire during ironmaking, and it may not be possible to smelt directly into steel after multiple smelting, at least it will reduce the time of forging and save manpower. Anyway, you can use the weighing method mentioned in "Dream Creek Pen Talk" to test, you can try to see if what I said makes sense. ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "The principle of high-temperature smelting is understood, but there is no good way to increase the temperature of the fire. As for what the emperor meant by the refinement of the crystal? The minister doesn't understand, please ask the emperor to make it clear. ”

Apocalypse said, "For example, how many soldiers can stand in the small courtyard in front of you and me?" ”

Ni Yuanlu estimated and said: "With the distance between the emperor and the ministers, there are about 100 people standing in the small courtyard. ”

Tianqi nodded, walked to Ni Yuanlu's side, and then asked, "Look at the current distance, how many soldiers can stand in the small courtyard?" ”

Ni Yuanlu thought for a while and said: "The minister understands, in the past, the small courtyard that could stand a hundred people could stand more than three hundred people after shortening the distance between the soldiers, and these soldiers were the grains that the emperor said, and under the conditions of grain ‖, three hundred soldiers must have combat effectiveness than a hundred soldiers, so the steel after refining the grains by forging must be finer and harder than the previous pig iron and wrought iron." ”

Apocalypse nodded and said, "How to refine the grains, you can slowly figure out how to refine the grains, how hard to forge them, whether they are red or at the usual temperature, these can be studied slowly and carefully, I won't say much." You also have a suggestion to raise the temperature of fire, of course, it is only a suggestion that you should carefully ponder the principle "Iron and steel all need fire, and fire is made of carbon, so you should work the choice of carbon." ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "The ministers used to use more wood charcoal and rarely used coal, because the smell of that thing is not easy to find in large quantities≡ after the emperor's big iron company sold mines in the country, more mines were opened, and more coal was opened, Shanxi, Henan, and Zhili all produced coal, and even a large number of coal mines were found in Xishanhou in Beijing. However, even if it is smelted with coal, it can't be smelted steel, and the minister asked Deng Yuhan about it, but they couldn't say it clearly, and they didn't know if they didn't want to say it. ”

Tianqi thought for a while and said: "It's okay to make iron and steel in Xishan, but in the future, you are not allowed to dig coal, so as not to damage the feng shui of Beijing." I would like to give you another idea about coal, the essence of iron ore ironmaking is to remove impurities, can coal follow this idea to increase the combustion temperature? We used to burn trees with a lot of smoke and the temperature was not high, but later we built a carbon kiln to make the trees into good wood charcoal, because the impurities of the trees were gone. According to this principle, is it possible to bake in a coal kiln to remove impurities without allowing the coal inside to burn sharply, and whether it is possible to increase the combustion temperature? ”

Listening to the words of the Apocalypse, Ni Yuanlu nodded again and again, and kept thinking, and the group walked in while talking, and suddenly, Apocalypse found an acquaintance, who was Lin Hao, the former director of the Arsenal of the Ministry of War.