Watching the soldiers skillfully practice the three-stage strike, the left war secretly rejoiced that with a strong military force, the Mongols would definitely become hospitable, and there would no longer be the concept of a fourth-class pariah. This is not only the improvement of technology, but more importantly, the change of thinking, even if the locomotive of Zuo Zhan wants to stop, the Ming Dynasty, which tastes the sweetness of science and technology, will push him forward.

Sun Yuanhua, who was in charge of the command, saw that the little emperor was overjoyed, and deliberately extended the time for the drill. After the end of the day, it was already three poles of the sun, and the left battle was still unfinished, so he took a gun that had just been filled with gunpowder from the soldier's hand, put the butt of the gun in front of his shoulder, and shot at the bird that swept overhead, only to see the bird fall to the ground, which attracted applause from everyone present.

The left battle felt good after putting away the gun, the penetration power within a hundred steps was very strong, and the effective range should be about three hundred steps, which was more than enough to deal with the longbow of the steppe cavalry. The key is that it is easy to operate, and after a quick reload, a second shot can be made, so that the three-stage attack can be changed to a two-stage shot, which greatly improves the density and accuracy of firepower on the battlefield. Even under the cover of Wuhan Iron and Steel Vehicles, it is possible to launch an attack from the front, changing the previous limitation of relying on trenches to passively respond to the enemy.

At this time, it was noon, Zuo Zhan's stomach was ringing like a drum, everyone knew that he didn't even care about breakfast and rushed over, and was thinking about how to arrange this meal at noon, Huang Kezhang preemptively said:

"Holy Lord, this place is not too far from the old minister's house, how about the old minister order someone to prepare wine and food?"

This is a bribe in disguise, not only can you take the opportunity to get close to the emperor, but also let the female relatives of the right age serve. There is a precedent for the Bear Mansion, and it is reasonable for the ministers of the DPRK and China to want to climb the dragon and attach the phoenix. Everyone was secretly annoyed that Huang Wubu had taken the lead, although they were extremely reluctant, they were not easy to interject.

Zuo Zhan understood the thoughts of these people, and said with a smile:

"I have long heard that there is a tea ceremony saint in Huang Wubu's family, but now I am hungry and can't walk, so let's have a full meal with the soldiers in the barracks today."

Mencius said that there is no shortage but unevenness, which is really a famous aphorism that describes human nature. When everyone heard that the emperor was going to eat at Wang Gongchang, they praised him for being approachable, but their hearts were much more balanced.

At present, the food in the Beijing camp is four dishes and one soup, which is the same as the standard in the harem. Everyone saw that he was eating with relish, but they really couldn't understand what kind of immortal this little emperor was. When Zuo Zhan saw the meat, it was like seeing his mother, so he naturally didn't care about the thoughts of others, and only said after he was full of wine and food:

"The new type of firing pistol has a good texture and very good parts, but the number is too small, and we must try to mass produce it as soon as possible and become the standard equipment of the army. In addition, the ammunition needs to be improved, and the fusion of gunpowder and warhead can be considered, which can save a lot of reloading time. ”

Bi Maokang thought that he couldn't become a fat man in one bite, and said in embarrassment:

"Inspired by the saints, the smelting and production process of this batch of firearms has been greatly improved compared with the past, and the combat power of the army will undergo earth-shaking changes after batch equipment, but at present, the smelting of stainless steel is complex, the daily output is limited, and there is an urgent shortage of craftsmen, and it is the limit to be able to make 5,000 guns a year, and if the excessive pursuit of quantity may affect the quality of firearms."

Zuo Zhan was not surprised to hear this, with the current level of production can produce 5,000 is rare, in order to increase production capacity, we must first start from the basic disciplines, with enough knowledge and talent reserves to achieve a technological blowout. Especially the research and development of weapons, this thing is used to kill people, and if the quality is not reliable, it will cost the soldier's life in vain, so he said:

"I understand the principle of slow work and meticulous work, and I will not pursue speed excessively. After weighing, there are currently two ways to go: one is to hire Western firearms experts and officers with heavy investment, purchase advanced firearms and related production equipment, and make up for the lack of production capacity in the short term. The second is to add basic disciplines and cultivate their own professional talents.

I would like to remind you that you can't buy national defense with money, let alone have illusions about foreign devils, these people are very shrewd, and we still need to study the key technologies ourselves. When the time comes, I will open a military academy and an arsenal to take the core technology into my own hands. ”

Everyone was shocked when they heard this, and they didn't understand why the little emperor was so obsessed with firearms. Only Huang Kezhang can deeply understand the meaning, in his early years in Fujian, he was deeply harmed by the Dutch, knowing that traditional swords, guns, bows and arrows could not fight against Western firearms, he couldn't help but applaud and said:

"The saint's vision is ahead, and the old minister is happy and convinced. There is no end to the development of technology, in the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the firearms and shipbuilding of our dynasty were superior to those of the Westerners, and the performance of the warships and artillery of the Western pirates in the last years of Wanli completely surpassed ours. Now, if the Holy Lord wants to resume maritime trade, he must build a strong navy, otherwise not only will the Japanese return, but those Westerners will also have their eyes on our merchant ships and seaports. ”

Zuo Zhan knows very well that these people are pioneers who look at the world, and as long as they take the lead, they will follow suit and become the key talents to support this wave of science and technology. It's just that the national strategy needs to be tilted towards the military aspect, and the martial saint believes that "the soldiers who surrender without a fight are also good people", but throughout ancient and modern times, such good things at home and abroad are rare. The contest between countries is backed by military strength, and the soldiers can't get back what they can't get back in their bloody battles, don't expect diplomats to get it back with their mouths.

As for why he wanted to hire Westerners with a lot of money, Zuo Zhan had his own set of unique insights. Although science and technology have no borders, scientists have nationality, and instead of letting them develop weapons in the future, it is better to use them in the Ming Dynasty now, forming a situation of eliminating the advantages of the other at the technical level.

Zuo Zhan's visit also had another purpose, that is, to inspect the hidden safety hazards of Wang Gong's factory and to emphasize the standards and specifications for the production, storage, and handling of firearms and ammunition. In particular, it is necessary to pay attention to fire prevention, theft and spying, and all people entering and leaving must be strictly registered and examined, and even their ancestors are investigated for three generations.

This is by no means a soldier in the Left War, but a lesson from history has been fully learned, and it is in this Wang Gong factory that the famous apocalypse explosion occurred.

At nine o'clock in the morning of May 7, the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the sky in Beijing was clear, and suddenly a loud noise came from Wang Gongchang, and at the same time, a huge fireball appeared in the air, shaped like a black mushroom cloud. According to statistics, tens of thousands of houses were destroyed at that time, and more than 20,000 people were unfortunately killed, many of whom were naked.

The explosion of the Forbidden City was not spared, according to the "Heavenly Change Mansion" record, when the carpenter emperor Zhu Youxiao was having breakfast, suddenly the Qianqing Palace shook, this guy threw down the dishes and chopsticks and ran to the Jiaotai Hall at a speed of 100 meters to dodge. Most of the palace people who didn't react and the guards who ran slowly were smashed to death by the rubble beams, and the crown prince Zhu Cijiong, who was less than a year old, was also among them.

Let's talk about the impact of this catastrophe first, and then we will investigate the reasons for it. After the big explosion, the whole country of the Ming Dynasty was shocked, and the people were panicked, and the imperial historians believed that because the emperor was obsessed with carpenter work and spoiled the eunuchs, the court was full of miasma and corruption. Although Zhu Youxiao issued an edict in a timely manner, it seems that some people did not buy his account, they thought that the sky had eyes to punish the Zhu dynasty and encourage people to overthrow the corrupt Ming dynasty.

As for the cause of the explosion, historians and scientists have different opinions, and even repeatedly and deeply discussed the peculiar phenomenon of stripping. Personally, I think this is full of food and support, and not doing business under the guise of a brick family. With the technology of the Ming Dynasty at that time, the appearance of such a large fireball must have been caused by the explosion of the powder magazine, and as for whether the explosion was caused by natural disasters or man-made disasters, we will push back from the results.

Since the fourth year of the Apocalypse, there has been a rare drought in various parts of the north, and the watchman said that "the weather is dry and the things are dry, be careful of the fire candle", which prepared sufficient natural conditions for the explosion of the powder magazine. According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", Jizhou, Yongping, Shanhaiguan, and Jingshi all had earthquakes of varying degrees that year, and the palace in the Forbidden City was crumbling, indicating that the magnitude of the Jingshi was relatively high, which could cause aftershocks, which led to the collapse and explosion of the gunpowder depot of Wang Gongchang. In this way, the possibility of natural disasters is very high, and we will discuss man-made disasters.

First of all, the biggest victim of this explosion is the Ming army, you must know that the penetration rate of firearms in the army in the middle and late Ming Dynasty is as high as 60 percent, the direct impact of Wang Gongchang's bombing is that the powder magazine is gone, and the army cannot use firearms on a large scale in a short period of time, with the financial strength of the Ming Dynasty, this problem can be solved in a short period of time, but those elite talents and advanced technology have also been burned, which makes scientific and technological research and development out of gear, or even directly extinguished.

Since then, the Ming army's operations outside the pass have been more passive, combined with the "History of the Ming Dynasty" to see that the Eight Banners of Huang Taiji are unscrupulous in Liaodong, and even Yuan Chonghuan, Zu Dashou, Hong Chengchou and other cattle can only rely on the city wall for defense. Although there is a famous Guanning Iron Cavalry, the number is very small, which is enough to show that the advantage of firearms in the Ming Dynasty after the explosion of the Apocalypse is not so obvious.

In this way, the biggest beneficiary is Huang Taiji, combined with Nurhachi's habitual trick of buying spies, there is also a possibility that there were traitors within the Ming Dynasty, and under the lure of heavy money, they detonated the powder magazine of Wang Gongchang. As for the naked corpses on the streets, it is also easy to explain, some people deliberately did it. With the degree of enlightenment of the people at that time, the people would naturally believe it to be true, and then follow the false rumors, turning a few naked corpses into thousands, tens of thousands, and then fabricating some abnormal phenomena in nature at that time, turning this explosion into an illusion that the Ming Dynasty was about to fall.

This is the usual trick of the rebels, the earliest peasant uprising in history, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang wanted to pretend to be a ghost to fool the people below, and they also stuffed notes in the belly of the fish. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Han Shantong and Liu Futong wanted to overthrow the tyranny, so they first spread among the people that "Mo Dao Shiren has one eye, instigating the Yellow River to rebel in the world", and then buried a one-eyed stone man on the river beach in advance to encourage the people to revolt.

In this way, it seems that Huang Taiji is the most suspicious, and after the Manchu Qing Dynasty entered the customs, he even pointed at the big explosion of the apocalypse, guiding public opinion to say that it was a curse, and his intentions can be seen. Of course, it doesn't matter what the truth is, what the Left War has to do is to prevent it from happening. This will become the cradle of the modern industrial revolution, and he decided to do his best to protect the integrity of the Wang Gong factory.