Chapter 39: The Imperial Examination

In the early morning of the next day, Jiang Yun brought back all the firearms in his camp warehouse to the brothers sent by Lin Muzhi as promised. It was full of several wooden huts in the back camp, and all kinds of firearms were piled up inside and outside the houses.

This can make Jin Mingyin very busy, and he took a few militiamen to classify and disassemble all kinds of firearms piled up in a mountain, looking at these treasures, he couldn't close his mouth with joy.

An Yi looked at Jin Mingyin, who was picking and looking at the firearms pile, and said with a smile: "Mingyin, is this gift still to your liking?" ”

Jin Mingyin fiddled with a fire gun in his hand, and responded excitedly: "Those who know me, Brother Yi also!" ”

"You can't just be happy and promise me a new type of firecracker, when will you be able to take it down from the drawings." An Yi has been thinking about Jin Mingyin's idea of using the Franc machine on the firecracker.

Hearing him talk about this, Jin Mingyin suddenly remembered something and said, "Brother Yi, come with me, I'll show you something." ”

An Yi followed Jin Mingyin to a wooden house in the back camp, pushed open the door, and found that the large and small piles in the house were all stones, and they were placed on the ground in small piles.

An Yi looked at the stones in this room, and asked puzzledly: "Ming Yin, what are you doing with these stones?" ”

Jin Mingyin didn't say anything, he picked up two of them from the ground, brought them to An Yi, and asked, "Brother Yi, what do you think is the difference between these stones and ordinary stones?" ”

An Yi weighed the two stones in his hand, which were gray as a whole and had a lot of debris. Judging from the shape, the two stones were supposed to be one piece in one piece, but for some unknown reason, they were cut in two, forming a shell-like fracture.

"Isn't this just ordinary flint?"

Flint is the flint in the mouth of the people of the Great Xia Dynasty, and it is a very popular thing, which can be used to light the fire with the fire sickle and fire velvet. However, most people will use a more convenient fire fold when making fire, which is much easier to use than flint fire.

"This one is different." Jin Mingyin said, took the two flints in An Yi's hand, squatted down, gathered a small handful of the hay scattered around the ground, took a flint in each hand, and gently wiped it towards the haystack, and a few small sparks that splashed out quickly ignited the haystack, and it was turned into ashes in an instant.

This time he was a little surprised, and the surprise was not that Jin Mingyin lit the haystack, but that he directly lit the haystack with flint without adding combustible materials such as fire sickles and velvet. Generally speaking, flint ignition not only requires the assistance of items such as fire sickles and fire velvet, but also needs to be rubbed several times under the condition of skillful use before it is possible to splash enough sparks to ignite the haystack.

Unexpectedly, the two pieces in Jin Mingyin's hand actually ignited the haystack so easily, so he asked, "Why is this flint so easy to ignite?" ”

"That's exactly what I'm going to say." Jin Mingyin smiled and continued: "I found this flint on the mountain, and only a part of it was brought down, I think there should be a lot of it on the mountain." I think in this way, the reason why the traditional firearm is sometimes not as good as the bow and crossbow is because of the low efficiency of one round and one reload, and the second is because of instability, such as cloudy and rainy days, then a firearms army, nine times out of ten, it is necessary to mute the fire, and the damp firearm is not even as good as the burning stick. ”

An Yi looked at the flint in Jin Mingyin's hand and asked, "You mean to use the flint to trigger the fire gun?" ”

Jin Mingyin took the firebolt that had just been placed on the ground, and said his idea to An Yi while gesturing, "I plan to make a big change, since we want the firebolt to prepare the projectile of the firebolt in advance like the Furlong machine, then we can consider not using the firewire as the element of firing, but using the blow of the flint to trigger the hammer and let the projectile rush out." ”

An Yi thought carefully about what he said, if this is the case, then the firing speed will be significantly improved, as long as the width of the barrel and the sub-gun projectile is designed, after one shot is finished, the other sub-gun projectile is put into the barrel, and the second round of shooting can be started immediately after being tamped with a whole strip.

"Ming Yin, can you think of a way to cancel the only one step of tamping the whole strip, or you can not fill the bullet through the front barrel, and directly load the sub-gun projectile from the back of the gun, and then aim the design."

was comfortably said this, but Jin Mingyin, who was unaware of it just now, was stunned.

Tamping is the most important step before firing the firebolt, because only the compacted * can play a larger example, or even have the conditions for shooting. The idea of comforting the breech loading is a bit fanciful for Jin Mingyin, but I have to say that there is indeed a certain shining point and feasibility.

Thinking so, he nodded at Comfort, "I can try as you say." ”

An Yi looked at him, smiled, patted him on the shoulder, and said: "I have always believed that the progress of firearms will completely change the balance of war power between nomads and agricultural civilizations, and those who promote this step are bound to go down in history." ”

When Jin Mingyin's eyes lit up, and he had already begun to meditate on his admiration by thousands of people, An Yi walked out of the house alone, asked others for a horse, and rode in the direction of Chengdu.

He will not forget that today is the day of the imperial examination, which is not only the big day of the Great Xia Dynasty, but also the big day of Jiang Ruyue.

Let's say that Jiang Ruyue, who lives in a comfortable old house, naturally got up early today, making final preparations for the upcoming two-day township test.

When he packed up and walked out of the house, he found An Yi riding on a tall horse, standing at the door, smiling at him.

"Brother An, how did you get free today?"

Jiang Ruyue was very pleasantly surprised by the sudden appearance of comfort,

An Yi smiled and said to him: "Today is Brother Jiang's big day, aren't you here to send Brother Jiang off?" As he spoke, he pointed to a gray-brown steed next to him, "Get on the horse!" ”

Jiang Ruyue turned over and responded: "Look at what my brother said, I look like a child, and I still need someone to send me to participate in the township test." ”

An Yi deliberately quipped: "That's not it, let's have a good relationship with our Jiang Governor in advance, so that I won't forget my brother and me after high school, hahaha." ”

"Oh, brother, don't kill me." Jiang Ruyue said with a wry smile, followed An Yi, and rode towards the Gongyuan of Chengdu County.

Chengdu County, as the seat of the Sichuan Chengxuan Political Envoy Department, should be responsible for the township examination of Sichuan Province, and the Gongyuan in the east of the city is also naturally the examination place of the township examination. This tribute courtyard has been around for some years, and it has also come out of the not very large tribute courtyard. Some of them were really short and made county orders and prefects, and some of them soared into the sky, stood out from the meeting examination and the palace examination, and stood on top of the high temple.

Thousands of students in Sichuan Province who have studied hard have gathered in Chengdu County today, and in this short distance from the comfortable old house to the Gongyuan, the bustling crowd can be seen everywhere. Ordinary students don't have such a good treatment as Jiang Ruyue, and they have an old house in Chengdu Mansion to live alone. They usually choose to arrive in Chengdu a few days before and stay in the inns around Gongyuan. If it is some students who are shy in their pockets, they have to live in some relatively low-cost shops, and the environment is naturally worse.

When An Yi and Jiang Ruyue arrived at the Gongyuan, it was not yet time for the exam. Responsible for maintaining order in the examination room was the Chengdu garrison guard battalion, and two sturdy soldiers were at the gate of the Gongyuan with tasseled guns, waiting for the Hanlin who served as the chief examiner to announce the start of the ceremony before the students could be allowed in.

"The imperial court is in a wartime state, and it is also a blessing for these students to be able to hold the imperial examination as scheduled." An Yi looked at the crowds around the tribute courtyard and couldn't help but sigh.

Jiang Ruyue smiled and said: "The more the period of foreign war, the more important it is to carry out scientific research as scheduled. The scientific examination is not only a breakthrough for students to enter the ranks, but also an important tool for stabilizing the lower strata of society. ”

An Yi also chuckled and shook his head and said, "Brother Jiang can always see so many subtleties from a small thing, which is what makes my brother ashamed the most." ”

Jiang Ruyue said humbly: "Why should Brother An ridicule me. He looked at the students who were walking towards the Gongyuan from the inn next to the street, and said to An Yi: "However, it seems that there are no students sleeping on the streets because of shabby, and this must indeed be the result of the proper arrangement of the imperial court." ”

Hearing him say this, An Yi said with a smile: "This time, Brother Jiang is gone, this is not any arrangement from the imperial court, but the spontaneous behavior of these merchants, so as to prevent poor students from falling on the streets." ”

Jiang Ruyue was a little puzzled when she heard what he said, "Merchant? Since ancient times, businessmen have valued profits over parting, will there be such a righteous act? ”

"Besides, do they have any other chance to get involved with you heavenly pride?"

Jiang Ruyue suddenly understood what An Yi meant, and the two looked at each other and smiled on the horse.

In the southwest corner of the Gongyuan, a candidate dressed in coarse cloth had just walked out of the shop with his cloth bag on his back, a pair of worn cotton shoes on his feet had been worn for a long time, and the toes of his left foot had poked his head out of the shoes from the lonely.

After a few steps, he was blocked by two strong men with wooden sticks. The examinee raised his head and looked at the two strong men, and a trace of horror flashed in his eyes. Because of his shyness, after paying the store fee for the past two days, he also ate a meal of noodle soup every day to satisfy his hunger, so his face looked a little sallow and hungry.

"What? I haven't paid the rent, but I have the money to come to the hotel? ”

One of the tall, thin men looked at the examinee with a smirk,

"Two... Second master, this year's harvest is not good, I... Our family really has no money to pay rent, and the money to participate in the scientific expedition in Chengdu is borrowed from relatives, waiting for me... When I finish taking the exam, I will definitely find a way to repay your .....," the candidate replied timidly,

The tall and thin man waved his hand in disgust, thinking about the candidate's words, and choked: "I said Zheng Juzhang, how many times have you said this, and the ears of the master are calloused." Since beating your father and breaking his leg, you told your father that you must find a way, and then your mother died, and said that you would raise money to bury your mother, and told you that you must find a way, are you taking your father as a fool? ”

He pointed to the person who was sitting on a wicker chair under the gazebo drinking tea in the distance, and said viciously: "Let me tell you, the king has something to say today, don't you hand over the rent, and want to go in for the exam?" There are no doors! ”