Sending Liang Wencheng and Shen Dao away, Li Zicheng locked himself in the study, and first set a goal in his heart: the current Ming Dynasty, the artillery is all solid bullets, which can only scare the nomads, the actual effect is not ideal, he wants to cast artillery to garrison the Guguan, he must develop flowering shells, like Xining rifles, reserve gunpowder in the ammunition, and use the explosion of gunpowder to kill and injure the enemy.

This kind of artillery does not need to be too advanced, as long as it is convenient to use and slightly beyond this era, too advanced artillery, he lost the drawings when he fell into the water, and, at the current industrial level, even if there are drawings, it cannot be produced.

He took out the treasures he was carrying, rummaged through them one by one, and after a while, he finally found a satisfactory content: howitzer, 10 times caliber, 100 mm, maximum range of 4,000 meters, and a killing radius of 3 meters.

This is an early artillery gun, the process is relatively simple, the barrel length is only one meter, and it saves materials.

Li Zicheng didn't know if the data of this howitzer could be compared to the "red-coated cannon" of the imperial court, but the red-coated cannon fired solid bullets, and its power was definitely inferior to this howitzer.

There are ready-made drawings, it is not difficult to cast such a gun, the key is the flowering shell, and the detonation device is the difficulty.

The last time the rifle bullet was manufactured, even if it was compared with the drawings, it was finally completed by John Tang, and in terms of process technology, no one in the entire Ming Dynasty could beat it.

This time to develop artillery, Li Zicheng is also ready to hand over the problem to Tang Ruowang, but Tang Ruowang is only one person and cannot complete all the work, so he must train his own artillery experts.

In the end, Li Zicheng asked his soldiers to inform Tang Ruowang and asked him to bring two graduates of Xining Science and Technology College, preferably those who have a certain degree of study in artillery, to meet in the craftsman's workshop in the afternoon.

With the strong support of Li Zicheng, the craftsman workshop has been completely renovated, the land area has been nearly doubled, the production unit is separated from the R&D unit, and the craftsmen are also converted into R&D personnel and production personnel according to the principle of voluntariness.

However, there is still a big distance between this and Li Zicheng's vision in his heart, and the most critical reason is the lack of talents, the traditional craftsmen have limited skills, and they are illiterate, mainly relying on experience, and the skills they have mastered are "passed on to sons but not sons-in-law", and it is difficult to develop.

Therefore, Li Zicheng is ready to let the old craftsmen gradually retire and let their sons come to the top, but their sons must go through the Xining Science and Technology High School to combine traditional crafts with modern technology.

When I came to the craftsman's workshop, I saw a white wall in the distance, which was the wall of the craftsman's workshop, and near the corner of the wall, there was a house with a white wall, which was just stuck with the gate.

Li Zicheng had just come to ten steps in front of the gate when a soldier in camouflage uniform came out of the gatehouse, "Who are you?" What are you doing here? Get out of here! ”

He Xiaomi was furious, immediately pulled out his waist knife, and was about to go up to theorize, Li Zicheng hurriedly stopped him, but said to the soldiers guarding the door: "You are the guards here?" How do I get in? ”

The soldier stretched out his thumb and smirked back, "There must be a red card issued by the Grand Governor's Office, otherwise, you will not be allowed to enter!" ”

Li Zicheng said with a smile: "Brother, I have something urgent, can I be accommodating?" If you need a red card, I'll go to the Governor's Mansion to make it up! ”

"Accommodating? No red card, I know who you are? The soldier's face turned cold, and he said categorically: "This lord, I see that you are also an official eunuch, and you have countless followers, but you must also understand the villain, if you are discovered, the villain will have to retire." ”

Soldiers strictly enforce the law, for Li Zicheng, it is naturally a gratifying thing, but if it is too dogmatic, it will fall into rigidity, is his face not worth a red card?

Li Zicheng was about to speak, He Xiaomi was already angry, and he shouted at the soldier: "Blind your dog's eyes, you dare to stop the Metropolitan Governor!" ”

When the soldier heard that it was the Metropolitan Governor, he was immediately stunned, but he didn't know Li Zicheng, so he shouted at the porter: "Sanwa, don't you boast about seeing the Metropolitan Governor on weekdays?" Check it out! ”

"Suzi, what's wrong?" A person walked out of the gatehouse, about twenty-five or sixteen years old, also wearing a camouflage military uniform, he first looked at the original soldier, and when he turned his eyes to Li Zicheng's body, his face suddenly changed color, and he rubbed his eyes, yes, it was the Metropolitan Governor, so his knees weakened and he knelt on the ground, "The villain knocks on the Metropolitan Governor!" ”

The soldier named Su Zi was also stunned for a moment, and then fell to his knees and knocked on the ground with his forehead, "The villain doesn't know if it's the Metropolitan Governor...... The villain deserves to die, the villain deserves to die, beg the capital to punish him! ”

"Those who don't know are not guilty," Li Zicheng helped the two guards up, and said: "You strictly enforce discipline, there is nothing wrong with you, and it is difficult for bad people to take advantage of loopholes!" ”

"Thank you, little man!" After Su Zi got up, he was very excited in his heart, not only did he see the Metropolitan Governor today, but he was also personally helped up by the Metropolitan Governor, and the hands of the Metropolitan Governor were really powerful...... After today, even death is worth ......

"That's it, I'll go in first, and then make up the red card," Li Zicheng called a personal soldier and asked him to go to the Governor's Mansion, "Mr. Tang has been in Longyou for a while, and he may not know the rules, so help him ask for a copy by the way!" ”

"Grand Governor, please!" Sanwa and Su Zi said in unison.

Entering the craftsman's workshop, he was greeted by a huge production unit, Fang Zhizheng commanded the craftsmen to cast guns, and when he saw Li Zicheng, he hurriedly led everyone to salute, "The grass people and others knock on the metropolitan governor!" ”

"No need to be polite, you are busy!" Li Zicheng said to Fang Zhi again: "Where is the R&D department?" ”

Fang Zhi hurriedly bowed down and replied: "Back to the Metropolitan Governor, the R&D Department is in the innermost, and the grass people will guide the way to the Metropolitan Governor!" ”

The R&D department is located on the left side of the craftsman's workshop, with two rows of white stone wall thatched huts, and in the front row of thatched huts, only Liu Fang is alone, sipping hot tea on the beams of the house.

Liu Fang saw that it was Fang Zhi, so he said sourly: "Fang Zhi, if you don't go to cast a gun, what are you doing in my small place...... Ah, the Grand Duke! Liu Fang hurriedly threw the tea cup and bowed to the ground.

"Haha, Liu Fang, are your eyes red?" Li Zicheng motioned for him to get up, and he sat down on the main seat.

Fang Zhi went back to the scene of the gun-casting by himself, and Liu Fang was busy serving tea to Li Zicheng, "Metropolitan Governor!" ”

After a while, Tang Ruowang came to the craftsman's workshop, followed by two young people, Li Zicheng looked familiar, but couldn't remember their names, after Tang Ruowang's prompt, he remembered that they were students from Xining Science and Technology High School, the white-skinned one was called Tang Jin, and the dark-skinned one was called Zhao Jiacai.

After the three of them saluted, they all sat opposite Li Zicheng, and after Liu Fang served tea, he stood behind Tang Ruowang.

Li Zicheng said with a smile: "Liu Fang, you can also sit, these are all experts, with them, you can also gain knowledge!" ”

Liu Fang saluted again, and then sat down.

Li Zicheng looked at John Tang and said, "Mr. Tang, how is the design of the Yellow River Bridge in Lanzhou?" ”

Tang Ruowang wondered in his heart, why did the Metropolitan Governor choose to summon him in the craftsman's workshop if he wanted to know about the Yellow River Bridge, and his assistants Lu Rongda and Yu Xiao were not around, but fortunately they made preparations, and the design drawings were brought with them! He took out the drawings from his bosom, spread them out on the square table, and said, "I'm about to report this to the Grand Duke!" ”

Li Zicheng looked down and felt that the drawings were densely packed with very small Chinese characters, and he didn't feel that his scalp was numb, "Mr. Tang, the Zhangshui and Shandanshui bridges have been successful, so you can tell me about the Yellow River bridge, what is the difference between them and them!" ”

"Governor, please see," John Tang pointed to the piers on the drawing, "the Yellow River Bridge is much longer than the Zhangshui and Shandanshui bridges, and the load of the bridge deck is greater, so I increased the thickness of the contact between the bridge deck and the bridge piers, and formed an arc under the bridge deck." ”

Li Zicheng took a closer look at the bridge piers, and sure enough, as Tang Ruowang said, along the top of the bridge piers, a section of arc extended under the bridge decks on both sides, and a big "n" was formed between the two bridge piers, and the top of this "n" was not the original straight line, but a circular arc.

From above, the bridge deck is still a complete arc surface, and from the bottom view, the whole bridge deck is divided into several small arc surfaces, such a structure, is to bear the load of the whole bridge deck, change to be borne by the adjacent two piers, neither affect the unity of the whole bridge deck, but also effectively reduce the load of the whole bridge deck.

He is truly the best engineer in Daming!

Li Zicheng secretly admired, his heart has already blossomed, according to this design concept, theoretically no matter how wide the river, you can also build a bridge on it, fortunately Tang Ruowang turned to Xining, otherwise such a bridge, according to the level of Ming technical personnel, I don't know if it can be completed in 50 years.

"Mr. Tang's design is really ingenious!"

Tang Ruowang said happily: "In this way, the Metropolitan Governor agreed?" ”

Li Zicheng said with a smile: "I agree, Mr. Tang is the most outstanding engineer of the Ming Dynasty, and Mr. Tang's proud work is to put it in the Holy Roman State, I am afraid it is difficult to find similar works." ”

"In Holy Rome, even if such a bridge could be designed, without high-quality steel and cement, it would be in vain!" Tang Ruowang smiled rarely, and then there was a sad look on his face, "Governor, such a bridge needs steel and cement...... Quite big, I'm afraid! ”

"It doesn't matter, now the road construction has completely stopped, but the cement plant has not stopped production, and there should be a lot of inventory until the cold ice melts in the next spring, as for the steel, there is no need to worry, the craftsmen found another iron ore at the foot of the Qilian Mountains, no accident, the spring can produce raw iron," Li Zicheng said with a smile: "However, I have a suggestion, on both sides of the bridge deck, add a row of guardrails, so as not to walk on the bridge deck, because of the accident!" ”

"Guardrails?" Tang Ruowang thought for a while, and then understood, "The Metropolitan Governor is right, why didn't I think of it?" ”

"It's not too late to think about it now," Li Zicheng laughed, "Mr. Tang, improve the design of the bridge as soon as possible, and then hand over the specific work to Rongda and Yu Xiao!" ”

"Yes, Metropolitan Governor," John Tang agreed, before he came to his senses, "Metropolitan Governor, is there anything I need to study?" ”

"Mr. Tang is really my confidant!" Li Zicheng stretched out his thumb and praised, and said: "Mr. Tang has studied artillery, and he has long asked me to cast artillery, and now the conditions are finally ripe." ”

"Artillery?" John Tang was full of confidence and said: "Governor, this is not difficult, as long as there is enough copper and iron, I can ensure that I can cast first-class artillery, sharper than the Portuguese artillery, in Europe, the artillery of our Holy Roman Kingdom is the most advanced, even the Grape people have to buy from us!" ”