The Xingqing Palace where Zhu Zhanji lives belongs to the middle palace in terms of geographical location, but in the administrative sense, it belongs to the harem, because it has the life of the royal family, so it cannot be used as an office space.

He is not like Zhu Di, who has three major halls and Wuying Hall to handle official affairs, nor is he like Zhu Gaochi who has a James Mansion to handle official affairs.

So when the naval headquarters was built, it became the place where he handled affairs outside the palace.

Since his triumphant return, after the previous few days have been busy, there has been an endless stream of people who have come to visit him at the Navy Headquarters in the past few days.

As soon as Qiu He was sent away, there was another commotion outside, and Liu Sheng's voice was heard shouting: "I have a good relationship with His Highness, in fact, you can stop it, children, help me open the way!" ”

Zhu Zhanji walked to the door and couldn't help but be a little annoyed. Liu Sheng led a group of guards, stopped a group of naval guards who wanted to stop them, and led four guards carrying large boxes to break in.

Li Liang, who had just sent Qiu He to the door, said with a smile: "Marquis Anyuan, what kind of play is this singing today?" ”

Qiu He didn't dare to stand in the way, and hurriedly retreated to the side. Liu Sheng was about to speak, when he saw Zhu Zhanji coming to the door of the main hall, he didn't have time to speak, he just made a gesture with Li Liang, and knelt down on one knee from afar. "Chen Liusheng greets His Highness."

Zhu Zhanji didn't see joy or anger, and said calmly: "The navy is important, who has made it difficult for Marquis An Yuan?" ”

Although Liu Sheng was favored by Zhu Di and was aggressive in the face of the naval guards, he said humbly at this time: "Your Highness Mingjian, the minister is just anxious to see His Highness, and he is not troubled." It is rare to know that His Royal Highness has the leisure to meet customers today, but he has not been able to let a merchant take the lead. ”

He glared at Qiu He viciously, then quickly changed his face, and looked at Zhu Zhanji in the distance with a smile.

In the eyes of others, Liu Sheng may be a fierce general who is arrogant and arrogant, but Zhu Zhanji suddenly understood that everything about this person is a performance.

He deliberately used this way to get close to Zhu Zhanji and bring the relationship between the two sides closer.

At the time of the Northern Expedition, Liu Sheng was originally very hopeful of being close to Zhu Zhanji, but at that time, he led the Ming Dynasty with the wrong firearms, and he did not take Zhu Zhanji, the third-generation heir, in his eyes at all.

But when he turned his head, Zhu Zhanji rose at a rapid speed, and had a bad relationship with Zheng Heng during the Northern Expedition, and even wooed Liu Jiang.

Needless to say, Zheng Heng now has 200,000 cavalry in his hands, has great power in the grassland, and also controls the largest mine in the Ming Dynasty.

And Liu Jiang was originally a general soldier of the border army, and he was a marginalized figure in the Ming army, but he became the governor of all the water divisions of the Ming Dynasty.

Although there is also a Zhu Zhanji above him who is in power, there is only one person in the country who is the governor of the navy, but he has much more power than them, the left and right governors of the five armies.

And Zhang Fu is now fighting bandits in Jiaozhi, according to the movements of the imperial court, it has almost been determined that he will divide Jiaozhi in the future.

In addition to them, there is also Zheng He, a eunuch, who was asked by Zhu Zhanji to serve as the director of the navy and monitor the entire navy.

Even Huang Fu's son, who was only 25 years old, had already become a middle-level general in the army because of Zhu Zhanji's favor.

Not to mention that there are also Ji Gang and Zhuang Jing and the gang who have done a lot of evil, they were originally going to be disposed of as waste, but now they have been given a new life.

So at this time, it is not uncommon for Liu Sheng to start moving closer to Zhu Zhanji.

It's just that he specified that he had lost the opportunity, so he deliberately did the opposite, using this almost risky way to gain Zhu Zhanji's attention and challenge Zhu Di's bottom line.

If Zhu Zhanji is angry, he will steal chickens and rice, and if he provokes Zhu Di to be taboo, he will not be able to live honestly for a few years.

But as long as he succeeds and he is promoted, the future of his Liu family is guaranteed.

Thinking about these links, Zhu Zhanji couldn't help laughing, and said with a wave of his hand: "Let's all step back and let An Yuanhou come in." ”

A navy chief knelt down on one knee and said: "Your Highness, it's not that the lowly duty is deliberately making things difficult, it's just that the Marquis of An Yuan is unwilling to open the box, so he has the duty of the lowly duty and does not dare to let him go." ”

Zhu Zhanji looked at the big box carried by the four guards, and said with a smile: "You are conscientious, what is the crime?" Huang Shoubei, give this general a credit, and reward ten taels of silver. Marquis An Yuan, it's time to uncover the mystery! ”

Liu Sheng smiled and waved his hand, and a group of guards came behind him, and the four guards carrying the box also put down the big box.

Liu Sheng personally opened the big box, took out a spear and said, "It's not that the minister deliberately concealed it, but this matter is not trivial, so I have to be cautious." ”

As soon as the spear was taken out, Zhu Zhanji found something different, his heart moved, and he walked out of the main hall.

The style of the spear of this era is still very simple, in fact, a barrel is fixed with an iron bar on the butt. The barrel is thin in the front, thick in the back, and finally plugged in the back with an iron post, and then wrapped in iron sheets.

Except for an iron-inlaid rain plate, the entire barrel has no markings on it, and it is more of a small cannon than a barrel.

Since it has been possible to drill the barrel with a machine tool and sharpen the barrel with a sand stick. Then the strength is increased by quenching, and the thickness of the front and rear of the barrel is consistent.

Although Zhu Zhanji left a crosshair on the barrel, the musket is still mainly scattershot, so the role of the crosshair is not great.

Anyway, now against each other, the enemy is a large area, and no matter how you shoot, you won't miss. Although scatter bullets do not directly kill people in many cases, they can make the opponent lose their combat effectiveness and be slaughtered by others.

The gun that Liu Sheng took out was also made of a new type of barrel, but it was not a single barrel, but a double barrel. In addition to this, behind the barrel, there were two beak-like hammers.

Because of the double-barreled musket and the hammer there are two, such a musket style is infinitely close to the shotguns of later generations.

Zhu Zhanji walked up to him quickly and asked, "But has the ignition of the hammer been solved?" ”

Liu Sheng knelt down on one knee, raised his spear with both hands and said: "The minister did not fail in his mission, replaced the fire rope with flint, and made a musket that met the requirements of His Highness." ”

Of course, this matter could not be the credit of Liu Sheng, but he dared to say this, of course, it was also developed by his subordinates.

Zhu Zhanji has only been in contact with this aspect for a short time, although the entire Ministry of Industry and the internal prison are supporting him, but the most cutting-edge musket craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty are actually under Liu Sheng's banner.

So, it was no surprise that he was able to create a new musket.

Zhu Zhanji picked up this musket, because of the material of steel, the wall thickness of the musket is thicker now, which also leads to a slightly heavier double-barreled shotgun than the double-barreled shotgun of later generations.

However, the overall weight is still acceptable to manpower, and I don't feel very tired when I lift my hands for a short time.

Zhu Zhanji said with some excitement: "Let's go, go to the shooting range to try the gun." ”

He couldn't help but be excited, this was an epoch-making weapon. With this kind of weapon, the armies of other countries in the world will all be turned into chickens and dogs.

Now that Britain and France are still in the midst of the Hundred Years' War, what are their soldiers using? It is the famous English longbow and spear.

And France is similar to them, all of them are still in the embryonic period of hot weapons.

The development of firearms in Europe did not really begin to be used until the Thirty Years' War, at least ten years later. And flintlock pistols, they are a long time later, and at the very beginning, they are not easy to use.

If the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty can all be armed with this kind of musket and sweep the restrictions of the entire world, it is only in distance and between things.

The battle site of the naval headquarters was originally the avant-garde military camp of the government army, and a part of their original territory was demarcated.

Although the training ground of the avant-garde of the government army has become much smaller, there is no shortage of places to set up a shooting range.

Although it was not yet the turn of the government army to change their muskets, they couldn't wait to learn from Yu Linwei and set up a shooting range.

With old-fashioned muskets in hand, they couldn't wait to arrange for the soldiers to start live-fire training.

The bigwigs of the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies, the General Administration Department and the Jinyi Guard have become accustomed to the gunfire here for some time now.

Along the way, Zhu Zhanji was observing the musket in his hand, the design of the butt is still very old, there is no ergonomic principle, it is completely for the sake of firmness and convenience of shooting.

If it's an untrained person, there may be some hands-on skills. But Zhu Zhanji played with all kinds of firearms in his previous life, and he often played with guns in this life, so he didn't have the slightest strangeness.

Inserting the lead into the small hole in the rear, he himself tore open two ammunition packs and poured gunpowder into it. The gunpowder was compacted with a throughstrip with a wooden block at the tip, and then the marbles were installed.

Finally, cotton paper used to pack gunpowder is stuffed through the muzzle of the gun barrel and compacted. This completes the reloading procedure.

Because of the implementation of ammunition loading, although the procedure is indispensable, it does not take much time. Moreover, this two-barreled design is equivalent to doubling the number of troops.

In the first round, the two targets were placed at a position of about thirty paces and fifty meters.

Zhu Zhanji raised the gun in his hand, let everyone dodge the position in front of him, and tried it in his hand.

Because it is a double-barreled design with two hammers, the trigger is also designed with two, one front and one rear. Although there are some flaws in the workmanship, it does not affect the shooting.

Zhu Zhanji took aim slightly and fired two shots in succession. Two puffs of white smoke rose and blocked his vision.

However, he was not in a hurry, and naturally someone would report his results to him.

The little eunuch Liu Wan ran over quickly, looked at the target and shouted, "Congratulations, Your Highness, both shots hit the target." ”

Li Liang shouted: "Use you to be verbose, Your Royal Highness, the prince and grandson, how can you not hit the target!" Quickly carry the target over and see the depth of the projectile. ”

Because it is a scatter bullet, there are five craters on each target, and the lead soft bullet naturally grows larger when it encounters resistance, forming five craters that are larger than the original bullet, but the depth is not enough.