Ni Yuanlu thought about it for a long time, and finally decided to report this matter to Tianqi first, at most, to be honest, he was inspired by Wu Sangui's suggestion, although it may bring Wu Sangui a little trouble, but it is better than letting Tianqi think that he has already succeeded and waited for the price because he is greedy for money. He first wrote Wu Sangui's suggestion to Tianqi, and then roughly talked about the idea of combining copper cannon barrels and iron cannon barrels into sub-mother cannons, saying that he was worried that someone would leak secrets, so he asked first to see if it was a secret test or through the Evergain Company as said a while ago.

After writing a memo and sending it to the capital immediately, Ni Yuanlu asked the guards to find Wei San again, and began to ask Wu Sangui if he was willing to stay and explain the stakes, in order not to show the news, he said a few words and asked Wei San to go down, and now Ni Yuanlu felt that he needed a trusted person, and after thinking about it, he remembered Wei San, a little fellow countryman. After Wei San arrived, Ni Yuanlu asked him to sit down, and then asked, "Wei San, I remember that you said that you learned the craft from your father for a few years, but I can't remember whether your father is a blacksmith or a carpenter?" ”

Wei San smiled and said, "My lord, you have a good memory, I did learn the craft from my father for two years, but my father is neither a blacksmith nor a carpenter but a stonemason. I studied for two years and my hands were full of calluses, after joining the army, because the martial arts are not good, I will point to the stonemason's craft, so I do things at the mouth of the two rivers, I see that the stone lion at the gate of the Huangzhuang is not majestic enough, if the adults give it to me to do it, they will definitely do well. ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "I do want you to help me do something, because I can't believe other people, who calls us fellow villagers, I only believe in you among these people, but I don't want to be a stone lion." ”

Wei San said: "Did the adults ask me to do those chili pepper bombs and lime bombs that Wu Gongzi said?" I began to overhear a few words about how adults are not strange. ”

Ni Yuanlu asked, "What did you hear?" ”

Wei San said: "I heard that the lord asked Wu Gongzi to stay, saying that he couldn't leave halfway through the secret matter at the beginning, and then the lord told me to go back and I left." ”

Ni Yuanlu nodded and said, "Stretch out your hand and I'll take a look." ”

Wei San wants to see what my hands do? But without hesitation, he stretched out his hands, Ni Yuanlu looked at it and said: "Your knuckles are almost thick before and after, and it is a hand that does things, if your fingertips are too thin, I don't dare to ask you, because according to the photo book, people with too sharp fingertips have more ideas, and I only need people who do things here, and I don't need people who think more." ”

Wei San said: "But I am a stonemason, and I need a blacksmith to do it." ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "You are still young and learning to do it, anyway, you have a foundation, one law is all the same, and the stonemason and blacksmith are almost the same." Wu Gongzi is not willing to let him go here, if you don't have an opinion, I will transfer you, and by the way, I will bring your wife and children to you a few rooms, do you see if you are willing or unwilling? ”

When Wei San heard that there was such a good thing, he hurriedly said, "Yes!" I do! ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "Then you go to the workshop tomorrow to have a look, and if your head is not dizzy, you will pick up your wife and children to listen to the instructions." ”

After a while, Ni Yuanlu saw that Tianqi didn't reply to his own twists and turns, and thought to himself that no matter how much, it was important to do the test first, anyway, he had made some broken copper and iron that could be used, and when Jingli had Zhun Xin, he would be able to save time. He originally cast the cannon in Wang Gong Factory, and after receiving the order to move it to Lin Yuan, he asked people to move all the barrels of various materials, large and small, and his original intention was that these things cost hundreds of thousands of taels before and after, in case one day to see where the hundreds of thousands of taels are used, there is also an explanation for these things to be presented, who wants to do the test now is to be used.

On this day, Ni Yuanlu took Wei Liu to the warehouse to see, in the past, when casting cannons, he had to cast a few pieces of each item at a time, and although the cannons of various materials were unsuccessful during the test, there were some spare ones left for each of them, and now they can be used for experiments. Ni Yuanlu ordered a few intact ones for Wei Liu to write down, and then asked someone to pull out all the destroyed cannons to prepare for recasting, and try to use the useless ones to find a way to bring them back to life. He first walked up to a cannon with a relatively thin barrel, pondered it for a long time, and then called a blacksmith and asked him to cast a bronze cannon from the inner diameter of the cannon.

Many people in the Bo College live in Shanglin Yuan, Zhao Shujiao first built a new type of farm in Shanglin Yuan, the original people in Shanglin Yuan looked hot and wanted to change their lives, after the consent of the Apocalypse, Zhao Shujiao rebuilt an identical Zhuangzi, the original Zhuangzi was given to the original people, and his subordinates and families lived in the new Zhuangzi. Later, Zhao Shujiao received an order to go to Guizhou, and then received an order to even the soldiers and their families were placed by the canal, even if this Zhuangzi was completely empty, it happened that there were many people in the Bo Academy, in order to keep things secret and protect people, the apocalypse asked people who did not have a house to move to the empty Zhuangzi in Shanglin Yuan.

After Ni Yuanlu came to Shanglin Yuan, the apocalypse allowed him to select people nearby, but he also said that according to the new regulations, that is, to pick people to do things, you must first distinguish between public affairs and private affairs, if it is a court affair, of course, it is done for nothing, but it can be used as its performance, if it is a private matter, you must first say the remuneration and let the relevant personnel record.

The blacksmith who was called by Ni Yuanlu was a person that Ni Yuanlu had used before, and when he saw that Ni Yuanlu began to ponder the cannon again, he said, "Why do you want to fiddle with this thing again?" This is made of fine iron and then specially polished and thinned, a total of two, just the inner wall is just ground to put the shells each for two months, thinking that it can be used some, who knows that the two cannons are also deformed. Adults want to make a copper cannon compared to its inner diameter, do you want to use the copper cannon as a cannonball? ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "Don't ask so much, ask too much, if you don't have the benefit, just do it, the material will take those scrap copper to do more at a time, and the outer diameter of each copper cannon is compared to the inner diameter of this iron cannon. This is my private matter, according to the new rules, I have to give you money, you can't be busy alone, call a few more helpers, I will give you double the money according to your monthly salary, what do you think? ”

The blacksmith smiled: "Lord Ni is too polite, what do we say about those?" It's just that this requirement is a bit high, and it can only slide and not swing, which is a little difficult, and I'm afraid that it will not meet the requirements when the time comes. ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "It doesn't matter if you try to do it, at most, you can melt it and start over, but if you don't meet the requirements, you will do it for nothing, and the bottom of the copper cannon should be made bigger so that it can't slide over, and the barrel and base should be made as thin as possible, and it is best to make it thinner than the edge of the bowl." ”

The blacksmith didn't understand what Ni Yuanlu wanted such a thin copper cannon for, and he didn't ask too much and asked someone to help prepare, but fortunately, the copper material was soft and easy to grind, unlike the iron grinding. The blacksmith thought that this time it should be a good thing to even earn three times the original salary, and that it was a good thing to do more than he could, so he happily asked a few well-connected men to get to work.

Within a few days, the blacksmith made a sample, Ni Yuanlu looked at it and thought it was okay, and said a few things that needed to be modified, and then sent the blacksmith away to call Wei Liu. After Wei Liu came over, Ni Yuanlu asked, "What about the fire sickle I asked you to find someone to make?" ”

Wei Liu took out a disc-like thing from his bag and said, "My lord, this is specially made by someone according to your request, I have tried to use it." ”

Ni Yuanlu took it and took a look, only to see that this disc was double-layered, the few halves were connected together, and the majority of the disc was suspended in the air without touching each other, like a large circular clamp, which was a little elastic when pressed by hand. The double-layered disc was inlaid with black flint on one side and a small iron block on the other, about the size of a copper cannon hole, which presumably sparked when the flint collided with the iron with a single blow. Ni Yuanlu put this special fire sickle on the ground, picked up a hammer and smashed it on the head, only to hear a little spark coming out with a 'pop', Ni Yuanlu nodded with satisfaction.

Wei Liu said: "My lord, you haven't set off the velvet and can't light it, why don't I find you some velvet?" ”

Ni Yuanlu shook his head and said, "No, you go and get a box of gunpowder, and don't tell anyone quietly." After speaking, he went to press the bottom of the copper cannon, and nodded secretly after finding that he could press it with his hands. After waiting for Wei Liu to bring the gunpowder, Ni Yuanlu first put the round fire sickle at the bottom of the copper cannon, and then asked Wei Liu to slowly load the gunpowder into the copper cannon, because the copper cannon was short, and every amount of gunpowder was filled. Ni Yuanlu pressed the gunpowder tightly with his own hands, then put an iron ball on it and glued it tightly, and finally gently loaded the copper cannon from behind the iron cannon made of fine iron, and after loading, he covered the baffle and looked straight at Wei Liu.

Wei Liu made Ni Yuanlu feel furious, and he also understood what Ni Yuanlu meant from this process, now there is gunpowder and a big fire sickle in the small copper cannon, and put it in the iron cannon just waiting for someone to smash it from behind, and if you smash it out, you can ignite the gunpowder without using a fuse rope. It is said that once someone did not pay attention to protect himself when he fired the gun, but he was shocked to death by the reaction force.

Wei Liu swallowed his saliva and said: "My lord, this thing is dangerous and easy to hurt people, it has shocked people to death with an arquebus point before, and now it is more dangerous to smash it directly, and you can't run away at all, your method is good, but you have to hurt someone every time, can you think of some other way to change it?" ”

Ni Yuanlu was right to think about it, it was indeed not a long-term solution to hurt a person every time he fired a cannon, he thought about it and asked Wei Liu: "What good way do you have?" ”

Wei Liu said: "Drill a hole in the middle of the baffle, put an iron rod on it, and let people throw stones from a distance, so that because people are far away, the anti-shock force will not hurt people." ”

Ni Yuanlu said: "Then do it, immediately ask someone to drill holes in the baffle, ask the soldiers to move the cannon to the side of the hill outside, and by the way, ask someone to ride a horse to see if there is anyone around, and if there are people, let them go away and say that we want to test the cannon." ”

By the time the baffle drilled the hole and the cannon moved to the side of the hill outside, it was already almost dark, Ni Yuanlu didn't care about eating and waited on the side, as long as the soldiers who went out to patrol came back, he was ready to set off a cannon and listen to the sound before going to eat. After waiting for a while, I saw the soldiers who had gone out to patrol come back on horseback, and shouted loudly while riding their horses quickly: "Don't be busy, my lord, there is an accident!" ”